New Lionel Great Northern GP-35

My computer (with high resolution screen) show the orange on these engines as almost orangish red. Is it really that color (hope not) or is it in the photo, and the orange is the correct Great Northern Omaha orange?

Here's a shot of the correct paint - the SD45 owned by the Great Northern Railway Historical Society:

Hustle Muscle visits Albertville, MN for a BNSF Employee Picnic On August 23, 2012, GNRHS-owned SD45 GN 400 'Hustle Muscle', visited Albertville, MN for the BNSF Employees Picnic held there. Please visit the Hustle Muscle page for more information and photos.

Breezinup -- From looking at the engine in more normal light, it is not as reddish as the photos, but I still think a tad darker orange than the prototype photo you show. If you look closely at my pics, the orange color changes a bit depending upon where the flash from the camera hits it. A very sharp looking engine in any event.

Thanks for the information, Dave. I was considering this engine, so was curious about the color. I guess I'm a bit of a stickler on that. Looks sharp; this was a less ornate scheme that the Gt. N. did to save money (before they went to the sky blue scheme), mostly by eliminating the yellow dividing striping between the orange and green, and replacing the full length white striping with the white dashes. It was still a nice scheme, though.

Thanks for the pics that looks great!  Wow it is very nice too...  Have to get that on a GP30!

I am gonna balance the debate.  I like big sky Blue, and hope to see more GN power in big sky blue.  I nevrer found a pic yet of a GN GP35 in BSB.

I grew up looking at BSB GN rolling stock on a huge GN layout done in N scale.  So to me it is the first color scheme that comes to mind for GN.  I like the empire buulder scheme too, but BSB is my fav.

This orange will lighten up and look very close to that hustle muscle pic.  The HM is outside on a sunny day, and the model is indoors using a flash.  The green looks off, so that is flash.

You have me walking around here Dave wishing I could get that one too!  What a sweet engine!  Its a sleeper you are right, so great and thanks for the pics!

Andrew, there were two GN GP35's that were painted sky blue, road numbers 3036 and 3038.

For accurate colors in the orange/green scheme, take a look at the Atlas GP35's. I have three of them and I think they nailed it. The Lionel orange is too dark (i.e. too much red bias).

GN-

I would love to see pics of the BSB GP35's you mention.  Hope you can post them.  I would love to see them.  Been looking for pics of this for some time.

Lionel has not used the same orange yet on the empire builder scheme GN's.  They did have a mistake only on legacy GP7 about 6 years ago, which was more tomato orange as you mention.  No other Lionel GN's looked redish like this.  Is this the Lionel orange-red you are referring to?

I just took a pic outside of the new legacy GN Gp9's.  I was very satisfied with that orange and green color and it looks great outside in natural light and scale effect.  I will try and post that pic here tomorrow for you (unless you have one of these)...

I expect these GP35's to look the same with the new colors.  I hope to see one in the flesh soon.

What do you think of the recent legacy GP9's?  I can hold my phone (with new outside pic of gp9) up to the hustle muscle pic above and it is and exact match to me.

This is the BSB engine I was thinking of for falconservice above. Lionel No. 28235.

Why would you guys be so concerned with the orange?  The gray is not close at all; according to the photo it should be almost black (if not black)....

Good point, but the Great Northern colors are NOT "gray" and what ever that orange is either.

GN colors, for that era should be more "Pullman Green" and "Omaha Orange".

I had to go back and see what you were referring to with this comment !   As Hot Water says, it's green, not gray, that was used in the famous Great Northern colors (as he notes, Pullman Green and Omaha orange). Here's some photos that are pretty accurate in showing the correct colors.

Thanks for posting that photo. That was my buddy, Doyle McCormack's, "F" unit restoration project, out in Portland, OR some years ago. I know for a fact that the collors are correct for GN, as I got him the original styling & painting drawing from EMD, so that he could finish the unit correctly.

Here is the new Legacy GN GP9, you will see the orange is better match to the post above of the hustlemustle sd45 picture orange.  This looks like a perfect match to that sd45  

gloss clearcoat automotive paint is not correct.  That is a restoration does not look like actual road power.

That's my point....I didn't say it should be gray...or that the photo of the real train was gray...that's Lionel's error.....I pointed out that people should be more concerned with the fact that grayish color (certainly not a pullman green) as portrayed by Lionel is no way close to being prototypical....I wasn't sure about the pullman green ( in the breezinup  train photo it sure looked black to me).  Yet people seem more upset with the red tinge in Lionel's orange. 

Aside from all of the discussion about the colors, I just don't think this scheme looks very good compared to some of the other legacy units posted in photos here in the past week or so.  Also: the multiple copying of the same photos in post after post also has my head spinning.

1) What makes you think it is "gloss clearcoat automotive paint"? It was painted with Dupont industrial Imron.

2) Have you ever actually SEEN Great Northern road power, and what they looked like when they came out of the EMD paint booths? Back in the days of those "F" units, and even the GP30/GP35 units, EMD used acrylic lacquer paints, and they sure were VERY shiny!

Ha Ha Ha HA (1)

Clear coat from these angles impact true color. You know that.  Hard for me to take this serious from you HW.  That orange, u are kidding (this is a joke, right?)

You lightened this post up!  Thanks!

You might think it's all very funny, but you have obviously never seen Great Northern locomotives in service, back 50 years or so (prior to the Big Sky Blue fiasco of 1967). And no, I didn't lighten anything up.

You go ahead and continue with incorrect colors on models.

I could not believe you called Dupont Imron something different than automotive.

Sorry, I thought you were trying to be funny, but it is the same.

So I thought you were trying to be funny.  Sorry you took it as insult.  Not my intent.  

Show us pictures of your correctly painted GN models on your layout.

Since I don't do diesels, or very few anyway, my only Great Northern piece of motive power is the MTH S-2 4-8-4, and THAT needed some paint corrections. You can check out the August/September 2010 issue of OGR (run 244)for photos of my engine terminal, or try the OGR DVD of "Great Layout Adventures" Volume 8.

Sorry I can't find a photo of that GN S-2 4-8-4. 

GN- I would love to see pics of the BSB GP35's you mention.  Hope you can post them.  I would love to see them.  Been looking for pics of this for some time.

Bob, the pictures you seek are in Joseph Shine's book, Great Northern Color Pictorial -Volume 2-, on Page 17. On this page are pictures of GN GP35's #3040 as delivered in simplified orange/green, and #3038 in Big Sky Blue.  This is the book to have for anyone interested in color photos of second generation GN diesels, plus everything in 1st and 2nd generation that got painted blue. 

Oh, I dunno, looks pretty close to me, only cleaner... 

Rusty

This is the Atlas O version of the Gt. Northern GP35. Dave's photo of the new Lionel GP35 is pictured below that for comparison. Wildly different! It's hard to believe Lionel went so far off the mark on the orange.