Fond memories of riding behind BN E-9's and a mixed train of GN Big Sky, Empire Builder and BN coaches right up onto the Superior WI ore dock on a fan trip at the NMRA convention. Got some slides somewhere of it. They were really concerned about derailing the coaches up there. Some of those cars ran on the Jersey Central in the early 70's, I used to ride them from Dunellen NJ to Hoboken before the either painted them or retired them. The 'Jersey Builder'.
Jim Waterman
In a word, no.
ATLAS has plans to produce new road numbers of the O scale Great Northern 89' 4" flat cars in Big Sky Blue., provided there are enough orders placed.
http://archive.atlasrr.com/ORS/arc-o89flatcar.htm
Andrew
I like it. I have a few K-line 21" cars that were offered, and the recent Lionel U33.
i suppose there have been worse ideas...
yes...
No Bueno!
Absolutely not. I really dislike the Blue Sky color scheme and I certainly wouldn't purchase one.
Every Jersey Builder train needs some BSB cars complete with the stenciled CNJ Miss Liberty logo on one end of the cars and the NJDOT logo on the other. 
As they say in Texas...ELPASO! I agree with Tom. To me it looked like a bad billboard not a classy train.
Don
I was thinking it was the worst passenger car paint scheme - but then a photo a few posts above reminded me that the BN green and white was worser!
The orange and green Empire Builder was among the best. Here is my entirely off-the-wall list - all opinion, of course.
Best first:
GN orange and green
B&O blue & grey
SP daylight
PRR Tuscan
SP Lark grey
NYC 20th Century Grey
PRR Fleet of Modenism
Olympian Hiawatha
UP Armor Yellow
ACL Purple & Silver
Golden State/Golden Rocket
(I am ignoring all the stainless schemes)
and then a very long way down from those, and in last place
Amtrak
BN Sky Blue
BN green & white.
Mispronounced it earlier. It probably should be better pronounced "Joisey Bylda"
I’m with Brian!!!
awesome Larry 
nice engine !!
Thanks, Brian. I bought it off the Trainz auction a few weeks ago.
Larry
GG1 4877 posted:Mispronounced it earlier. It probably should be better pronounced "Joisey Bylda"
Nice photo and a good looking little train. I'm on the love it side of the isle and would buy it if offered in Rail King size.
This post is a few years dated. The latest on the market is the MTH Big Sky Blue GP-9 that just came out Jan 2022 and looks pretty good. https://mthtrains.com/20-21518-1 Premier so pricy but lots of extras. Still considering getting one.
This spring 2022 the MTH RailKing Big Sky Blue SD-9 should arrive a little cheaper but less features, I had preordered 1 when they were announced really looking forward to this. https://berwynstoytrains.com/p...ith-proto-sound-3-0/
Engines like these above and the blue freight cars to me look really nice, thought nothing beats the original GN Empire Builder Orange and green.
I grew up as a kid a block from the Great Northern tracks that lead onto a bridge so I was often riding my bike next to the train when it was running slow to the bridge for a good view. Fondly recall the progression over the years from GN Empire Builder colors to simpler 1 orange stripe, then the blue and then change to Burlington Northern and the addition of Green with both freight and passenger trains. The trains got a lot more colorful over the years. (now take the grandson down to the same tracks/bridge to watch Amtrak and BNSF etc. same location)
My own fleet I have a lot of various colors of Great Northern Freight cars. A big steam engine, a GN switcher MTH, Lionel GP 7 all in Green/Orange. And I have an early MTH PS1 Great Northern ABA F7 set and full passenger set in the Empire Builder orange green scheme. I love it looks great. I also have a mix of both 2 and 3 rail freight cars and some early Weaver 1 stripe orange GN Green/orange FA ABBA set in 2 rail. Also a 2 rail BN all green set SD-9 MTH pulling 2 old 1970's Atlas BN Green F9 engines with a long Green string of freight cars, looks great.
A couple of months ago I painted up a GN VO1000 in green/orange. I have a AB pair of P&D hobby shop 2 rail F7 kits I just put together gluing on the brass parts, primed and in the photo below putting on the first coats of orange. Finished painting the orange today and started masking for the green for a classic Empire Builder 2 orange stripe / green paint scheme. But as I was spending a lot of time trying to get the masking tape lines straight I began to wonder how much work I want to do, how hard it will be to paint and getting the yellow decal stipes on straight over a row of deep rivet strips on the body will be a challenge? Humm I started to look at the other paint schemes? Maybe the 1962 to 1966 one orange stripe and green with no yellow stripes sure would be easier to mask off and less decaling? Or hummm wonder about that Big Sky Blue paint scheme as discussed it was a shortly used scheme and faded and the nose of the F7 does not look as good??? Will have to think about which orange/green scheme to use better looking 2 tone or easier 1 stripe??? I have a pair of the old Atlas F9 engines made in 1970's might consider repainting them in Big Sky blue???
The first BSB scheme was when I was visiting my sister in Wahpeton ND, summer 1967. Every year that we made the trip from Chicago to Wahpeton/Breckenridge on either the EB or Western Star, I would spend a lot of time photographing around the yards and depots.
On that summer day in 1967, I photographed a GN freight heading to Minot, a brand new BSB caboose was cut in 2 or 3 cars ahead of the standard caboose.
At first I did not like the new color, but after several years, it grew on me.
When I modeled in HO, I never did acquire any BSB equipment - except. When it was first announced by the GN, and I saw an artist sketch of an SD45, I immediately bought an undecorated Athearn engine and updated the details to match the prototype. Then painted it in BSB.
I have many photos of the Western Star at Breckenridge with a mix of Omaha Orange, BSB and BN passenger cars. Not really appealing, but interesting.
RAY
Some people like big sky blue. Not me.
MTH just sent out a product spot light video of the newly released MTH GP9 in Big Sky Blue. The GN part of the video starts at 1:45 into the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSOHGWSsODI
The look of this engine is sharp, so yes I like Big Sky Blue in this paint scheme on this engine. To me it is a good looking paint scheme.
There needs to be the Big Sky Blue Great Northern plug-door 50' box cars produced in O scale proportions.
Somebody will have to scan a FOX VALLEY MODELS HO scale model of a Great Northern 7-post, plug-door 50' box car and enlarge the digital model to O scale proportions, so it can be 3D printed using that Shapeways full color printing process.
Andrew
Falcon Service
Sky blue….yes!
And a NJ DOT paint job on an ex GN coach…
Tom
This one by Atlas is close; 
https://archive.atlasrr.com/ORS/arc-opspd.htm
Here is a selection of Big Sky Blue freight cars from my layout, MTH, Atlas, Lionel and Weaver. Lots of different shades of blue, I think all of these freight cars are quite attractive like this paint scheme and colors of blue, but looks especially good in a train of mixed colors of cars.
I have had some bottles of Poly Scale paint in Big Sky Blue set aside for a project for many years. Finally got to using them on a couple of old Atlas F9 and caboose shells. Here is the result, not to keen on it, seems a much darker drab shade of blue then anything else. Might re-mask and try a different BSB paint.
@kj356 posted:This one by Atlas is close;
https://archive.atlasrr.com/ORS/arc-opspd.htm
Here is a selection of Big Sky Blue freight cars from my layout, MTH, Atlas, Lionel and Weaver. Lots of different shades of blue, I think all of these freight cars are quite attractive like this paint scheme and colors of blue, but looks especially good in a train of mixed colors of cars.
I have had some bottles of Poly Scale paint in Big Sky Blue set aside for a project for many years. Finally got to using them on a couple of old Atlas F9 and caboose shells. Here is the result, not to keen on it, seems a much darker drab shade of blue then anything else. Might re-mask and try a different BSB paint.
I've had two bottles of that paint laying around for a while. Planned on re-painting a fantasy E60 and I need to paint a couple of sheets of styrene to put Rocky and the road name on for a GP7 shell that I bought already painted BSB. Which of the items above have been painted with the Polyscale?
The blue is nice, but I prefer the traditional green and orange. That's the color scheme I remember from back in the day.
The green and orange with yellow trim on the engines was beautiful. When GN starting deleting the yellow trim, I guess to cut costs, I thought the paint scheme seemed a little drab, more muted.
Thanks @kj356!
You're right about our custom run SD9. Scale sized with almost the same level of detail as a Premier engine does. But much more affordable at a RailKing price!
The Great Northern BIG SKY BLUE 7-Post 50' box cars remained in that paint scheme into at least 1995.
They need to be produced in O scale.
https://www.railcarphotos.com/...ls.php?PhotoID=71028
https://www.railcarphotos.com/...ls.php?PhotoID=38012
There were at least 2 series of these box cars.
They were commonly seen on all railroads. ..........
Andrew
Falcon Service
What’s not to like. Sky blue. The Rock Island super light blue makes less sense to me, but it’s different, so why not.
Atlas O released a Big Sky Blue Ford F-100 pick-up truck in the past year.
Andrew
Coach Joe wrote;
I've had two bottles of that paint laying around for a while. Planned on re-painting a fantasy E60 and I need to paint a couple of sheets of styrene to put Rocky and the road name on for a GP7 shell that I bought already painted BSB. Which of the items above have been painted with the Polyscale?
In the top photo the Polyscale airbrushed paint, it is the blue on the right side of the bottle. And the other photos it is the body shells F7 on the right bottom and Caboose on the bottom, which are old 1970's Atlas products. All the freight cars shown are factory paints as mentioned. If you have Polyscale old paint make sure that you really spend a lot of time stirring it vigorously to get all the paint pigments mixed properly.
Since that photo I re-masked the engines and caboose and tried Tru-Color Paint, TCP-051, GN Big Sky Blue but found it a bit darker then I liked compared to all my freight cars and photos. Then I tried Tamiya Color for plastics spray can TS-10 French Blue and sprayed the engines and caboose and find it is looking much closer to the BSB freight cars and photos, though not perfect. Waiting on the decals in the mail then will post some pics when done.
I do like the Orange and green with yellow stripes Empire builder scheme and have decided to do the extra work to paint the P&D F7 A&B units, will be a lot of masking and decal challenge to get the yellow stripes straight along the rivet strips. Thus for painting prefer the simpler blue scheme.
Looking forward to the GN blue SD9, any updates on the delivery date?
VistaDomeScott great addition to your trainset very well done tail car, any pics of the full train? What are you pulling them with? And would you know what paint "Christine Braden" used for painting that car? Or what colors used for a custom mix to match the K-Line cars? Looks like a perfect match?
I do like it
@VistaDomeScott posted:
@VistaDomeScott, thanks for posting more of Christine's fabulous work.
How was the rear door logo done? I ask because I've used Tomar Industries lighted drumheads; and, LIONEL has produced rear obs car doors with drumheads; but, I've never seen one done like your GN obs car.
Thanks for posting; hope to see the entire train soon.
Carl
Christine made the drumhead with a piece of translucent white plastic and applied a GN decal which she had made. Future interior lighting will be added that should illuminate the logo.
As of now the train is just the 3 existing K-line cars (full dome, short dome, & sleeper) and now this observation car. I intended to mix these with my Lionel green BN cars and BN/GN F7 units, and at times early Amtrak rainbow mixes. I will get some pics in the future. I may have Christine do a few more blue cars at some point. Always superb results from Christine!
Scott
These were part of the K-Line by Lionel era. Most of the aluminum passenger cars sold by Lionel in the yellow-and-black boxes were only 15 inches, occasionally 18 inches. It was rare for Lionel to issue K-Line's top-of-the-line 21-inchers, with the main (only?) exceptions that come to mind being the Milwaukee Road cars with the UP colors, and these GN Blue Sky cars. To each his own, but I think they are striking. As someone else pointed out, they apparently did not sell well, so this is perhaps tomorrow's rare, expensive collectors' item!
VistaDomeScott, that is a beautiful, custom observation car you had done to match!
David
I like blue.
To plain.
I have some posts on page 6 of this thread of my interest in all GN paint schemes and including GN Blue etc. - grew up watching GN roll by a few doors down from our farm, or when bike riding by the tracks as a kid seeing early GN paint Green Orange to Blue to BN Green. Like them all.
2 years later now from those posts on page 6; Berwyn's did a custom run of the SD-9 and recently the SD-45 in Big Sky Blue in MTH Railking and MTH did the GP-9 in Premier in Big Sky Blue. Does anyone else have any photos of their newer MTH Big Sky blue engines with trains?
After getting the latest engine from Berwyn's I just had to come up with a few more freight cars in GN blue to make a full blue train. There were some nice GN Blue freight cars available when searching on line sale sites including some nice 6 packs. But not wanting to spend much more on a train, I decided to paint a batch of old cars. Hunting around the layout and at our local train club I was able to collect a few various freight cars with boring paint schemes. I sanded down the old lettering, primed with Tamiya white primer for plastics, sprayed with Tamiya TS-10 French Blue, mixed up lots of bottles of various Vellejo paint till I got as close as I could to the MTH engine blue color. Air brushed the freight cars then used gloss coat spray and some old data decals and semi gloss clear when dry. I had a local sign shop cut me some white vinyl peel and stick logos and GN name and #'s. The image and lettering is cut but you have to remove the white bits you do not need around the letters. I found it best to transfer the whole name set to the car lightly applying it and then picking out the bits of lettering not needed like inside an O or A etc. Then rubbed with burnishing paper to get the lettering and logo down tight to the surface. I found a few more freight cars and a friend said he could print me white decals on his Laser printer. He takes out the black cartridge and was able to find a white cartridge. I created the images and he printed on Laser clear decal paper. While I found this to be easier to use to transfer images to the freight cars, the white ink was not as thick and crisp white as the vinyl decals, but was significantly cheaper then the vinyl decals. I did find a few really old Champ decals as well on line, they were about the same white when mounted as the laser decals with some blue bleed through making the white less bright. Otherwise I guess you could get a company that can produce a thicker white ink to produce some custom water slide decals. Was a bit pricy for a lot of decals when I checked a couple of places on prices.
The last 2 cars on the train are the old Atlas 1970's F7 (gears pulled to just roll along) and caboose. I used a little artistic license to create the paint lines and decal placements that I liked and was easiest. (the real F units looked weird with the white to grey line half way up the side grill. Most of the box cars are the Atlas 1970's box cars and some Weaver hoppers. The last half of the train has 2 rail scale wheels and Kadee couplers.
I am looking forward to getting my 3 different GN sets out to run on the other tracks at our garden railway club beside my blue GN train; 3 rail big GN steam engine and diesels in orange/green with freight. And some Old Weaver FA engines in simple green/orange without the yellow stripes, 2 rail to run on the outside track + the vast collection of various GN freight colors. Here are some pics from my first run of this blue GN set. Click on picture to make it larger then use right arrow button to scroll through the pictures for a larger view.
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