Do people like the Big Sky Blue GN scheme?

I have never liked the Sky Blue color scheme.  I loved the old one though.

 

Art

I like it, but I like everything Great Northern. A set of blue f-3s would be headed for my layout if Lionel ever made them.

I like it and have some in N scale.  A Lionel set of F units would be tempting indeed.  I think the Empire Builder scheme is a little more popular, but to me they're equally attractive.

Opinion: worst color scheme ever.  I like the orange and Pullman green best of all.

IMO, it pales in comparison (no pun intended) to the old one.

 

- Mike

Being a Great Northern fan, I much prefer this...

 

Over this...

AMEN!!!!

While I like the older orange scheme as much as anyone, I, too, would like to see some new Legacy or PS3 diesels in the blue scheme. Same goes for the 'bankruptcy blue' scheme of the last days of The Rock.

O-scale BN F-units -

 

...have been made. I have one. F9. Early Atlas. Got for $20 (boxed) at a swap meet. Green with what appear to be white letters, silver-ish "hockey stick".

 

These are "2-rail" locos, mostly plastic, weighted, good tool-and-die work. The

truck-mounted motor (two?) is easily removed (I've done it on a similar loco),

making for a nice dummy. The flanges/wheels are adequate for 3-rail environments,

especially if pulled.

 

It has (I'm looking at it) the Atlas Lionel-compatible dummy couplers, front and rear,

so find one, take out that motor, plop the dummy on the track and off you go.

 

The graphics are not up to current standards, but for cheap, they'll do. I was going to

paint it, but I'm not sure. Probably never get to it, anyway.

No, I do not care for the BSB color scheme. Also reminds me of Conrail which is my absolute least favorite road. 

I like the classic GN scheme ok, but I really like the BSB scheme. The early BN trains were fun to watch with all the different paint schemes.

 

Jeff C

In a word, NO!!!!!!

I'm with those who have no fondness for the blue scheme. It was a sad day when the GN abandoned their wonderful green and orange livery for the blue, IMHO.

 

An old retired railroader I used to know called the blue livery (like GN and Rock Island) "Loser Blue." A railroad changes to blue livery, and soon goes out of business!  

No.

 

Signed,

A People

Anything GN should be orange and green. Anything RI should be red and yellow. I won't even mention CR.

 

I took the picture below back in 1970.  At the time I didn't appreciate it because I liked the earlier paint schemes.  Later I realized how lucky I was to get three paint schemes in one photo, especially in St. Louis.

 

Some of the most interesting passenger trains were in the Amtrak transition era when the trains were a hodge podge of paint schemes.

 

I don't model the era of the Blue Sky scheme, but it should be produced.  That can be a very interesting era but unfortunately companies like to sell homogenous passenger trains.  Like Mill City's picture above, if you could see the whole train with a consist of mixed paint schemes, to me, I find them very appealing.

 

 

 

I just don't care for that shade of blue. There's this to consider as well...

No, I am not a fan of the GN blue paint scheme. You can't beat the orange/green combo. Now that's Great Northern!!!!!

The EB dome above is not from GN, bust SP&S!

Why did GN do from the EB to the BSB?

YES!

MTH has to produce the EMD SD45 in the Great Northern Big Sky Blue scheme next year. There were more Big Sky Blue SD45s than there were dark green and orange SD45s, so they have to make the GN Big Sky Blue SD45 for both the Premier and the RailKing line in 2015 and 2016.

 

 

 

 

The SD45 was used to pull the EMPIRE BUILDER.

 

 

 

The Big Sky Blue SD45s will pull matching passenger trains and matching freight trains.

 

 

Andrew

I like both schemes. This one is a nice version.

Here are Big Sky Blue F-Units all together. That looks great.

 

 

 

That can be made in O Scale by Lionel and MTH.  

 

 

Andrew

 

 

The Great Northern woodchip gondolas are most likely still in the Big Sky Blue scheme.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Atlas O, Lionel, or MTH can make the wood chip gondolas in the GN Blue scheme.

 

 

Andrew

The Great Northern 50' Plug-Door Box Cars have been made in HO Scale and N Scale.

It is time to duplicate them in O Scale.

 

The GN Big Sky Blue scheme was so durable that the Burlington Northern employees did not have to repaint them, until the BNSF merger.

 

 

 

This Great Northern Blue box car is preserved in Minnesota at the Jackson Street Roundhouse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I liked the BSB scheme on the big 2nd generation power, especially the F45's and the U-33C's. (These were never painted in orange/green anyway...) 

 

The BSB paint on the earlier MTH models was terrible. The blue was Conrail blue (too dark) and the top was gloss black when it should have been dark charcoal gray. The white nose striping was completely wrong on the MTH BSB GP-30's.

 

I probably would buy a BSB F3 set if offered including cab #367A. I got to ride in this cab on the morning northbound International in March of 1968, at age 13. There isn't anything better (for me) than riding under the air horns of an F3 at 79MPH, no matter what color it is!

 

I think I would be in for some BSB wood chip cars, too, if offered.

 

Note to manufacturers: If you make a BSB passenger set, remember that there were no sky blue Observation cars! GN removed them after 1966. The "Mountain" series cars remained in storage, painted orange and green, until after the formation of BN and Amtrak. 

I like sky blue livery but I have nothing in my collection representing it.

Larry

I also agree with HW's NO!!!!! It is like comparing B&O's blue and gray to their 1960's solid blue.

I like both color schemes.  Would like to see more sky blue equipment.  There's plenty of the orange and green already.

The BSB was not the "greatest", but it was not as bad as the PC worms.

I don't care for the blue...but I just purchased this Lionel Mechanical Reefer.

 

 

For freight I like BSB scheme, Passenger I not sure. The BSB F7 looks good The GP7/9 no. The one thing they should of never done, was have a sign ( for lack of a better term) attached to the railings of the freight engines. It looks cheap to me. It would have been better to paint the lettering and logo on the side of the engines.

 

This is actually a rather interesting photo, capturing a very brief period in time. The Cascade green "hockey stick" scheme with the GN logo. My guess is the date is 1969, just before the merger. Perhaps a paint test.

I'm spitballing here, but I wonder if that was done in anticipation of the merger. It would have been easy to pull the signboard and apply permanent lettering once the merger was officially blessed by the ICC.

 

Jeff C

Lots of good thoughts in this thread, thanks. I do agree that MTH should release an SD45 too in BSB as GN had many in that scheme at the end. Maybe BN and GN F units are on the map for the next year or two ... 

 

Hopefully we'll see a BSB F3/7 set and some premier passenger cars in the same year that even includes an observation car to appeal to the people that just like the color etc. and want it. We don't have to run the observation car if we don't want. I think that's why it's included in every 5 car set from MTH.  

These are photos of 4 of my Great Northern Big Sky Blue freight cars.

Lionel O gauge 3 tier auto carrier

Weaver PS-1 40' box car

K-Line modern tank car

K-Line modern Extended-Vision Caboose

 

 

I like both. But I didn't know about the green hockey stripe! Did the paint much in the green and white

MTH actually made a whole Railking sized set of passenger cars in that hockey stick stripe look with the BN logo. I have a hard time believing that scheme was more in demand than a BSB theme. 30-67554 through 30-67557 in 2010 Volume 2