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David R. Busse wrote: > Same thing when the Frisco merger happened. Frisco orange and white > SD45s showed up on Marias Pass and everyone went bonkers. > Then the green and white took hold > Same thing this time around. No, not quite. This time we have a company relettering a piece of America's heritage and using it as a corporate crutch, among other things, because they have no identity of their own. Unlike Burlington Northern in 1970, there is no BNSF paint scheme, not even a preliminary scheme (which was still Cascade green, black and white). How many BNSF 'pumpkin variations are there alone, now? I count at least four (or three and one revision which will surely change again on the next order), and counting. And then there is at least three remaining variations of Cascade green (some with white face, not counting the LPG units - please, nobody bother mentioning the X-mas train), BN Grinstein Green, BNSF Grinstein Green, Oakway, LMX, ATSF freight blue and yellow, ATSF Superfleet, BNSF Superfleet, red white and blue 1991 (we'll let that one slide), the Barf Bonnet (we can't let that one slide), and now the patch painted remains of most of the rest of the fleets of both railroads. I'm sure I missed something. Do you think this happened by chance, by accident, or by mistake? Or by too much management following the cash cow out to pasture? Hey, if you like colorful things, they you should be very excited about this railroad's scrambled appearance. If you wish to go out to photograph a railroad company, then you are SOL. UP is full of gray units these days, but look how many Armor Yellow variations there are, and look what color everything is being repainted. UP will recover from its operational blunder and learn something in the process. The Board of Directors won't allow otherwise. Maybe they can paint "We Do Not Recollect" on the sides of their next locomotive order. > Finally, if anyone thinks ANYBODY will merge to form a transcon in our > lifetimes, you've been eating too many Chili Three Ways or Ted Drewes > concretes... UP/CSX and BNSF/NS or similar variation will happen as long as the current situation is allowed to continue. Yellow and Black, now there is a RR industry scene. > ..I think the UP+SP debacle has set the big merger movement back 20 > years, at least. I think it has forced change associated with the criteria and the process of mergers, and the way in which they are proposed, but not the mergers themselves. Too many lobbyists and special interests at stake. We have not seen the worst effects of RR deregulation yet. The industry is a free-for-all held back only by money and loop holes, and there are plenty more of both in the bag. > I can see it now: NS tries to merge with KCS for that Birmingham-Dallas > e-w line. Some NS lawyer will stand before the Texas Railroad Commission > and expound on how service will improve by merging a small railroad into > a mega-railroad. NAFTA = Canadian ownership of both of our north/south lines only because the Mexican's can't afford them. We would sell the statue of Liberty for the right price (it was a gift anyway). This country disgusts me some days. So let's all get out and photograph it tomorrow. John Kneeling had his opinions too. > Bottom line: enjoy this rainbow of liveries while it lasts, because when > Krebs and the boys finally decide on some kind of image, the scene's > gonna change real fast. Right after they endorse their checks. Dave Cohen Photographer Action Photographic Webmaster [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.anet-stl.com/acphotog/home/ ======================================================= -> SPORRS: 'Serious Photographers Of Railroad Related Subjects' -> Web Site: http://www.anet-stl.com/acphotog/sporrs/ -> Message © 1998 SPORRS® - All Rights Reserved =======================================================
