As the Twentieth Century was winding down, the Union Pacific announced in 1999 the first major changes to their staid Armour Yellow and Harbor Mist Gray paint scheme, introduced on their E6 passenger diesels in 1940: A "lightning stripe" zig-zag (reminiscent of Chicago & North Western's Dash 9-44CW/AC4400CW paint scheme) was added to the upper red stripe and, more boldly, the "winged-shield" nose medallion, found on the railroad's old passenger power, to the noses of an upcoming order of 1000 SD70M diesels. New SD70Ms delivered in May 2000 featured these changes, with the return of the wings on the noses being a very welcome addition to what had become a very bland face on engines that had the North American Safety Cabs. And that was just the beginning, as on November 16th, 2001, the railroad added an American flag to the hood, in place of the large Union Pacific roadname, along with a small "Building America" slogan. These were applied to SD70M 4526, 4527 and 4528 in memory of the tragic events of September 11th, 2001. At first many believed that these three engines would be the only units so decorated, similar to the way many railroads (but, curiously, not UP) would paint one, or a handful, of locomotive in patriotic colors to commemorate the American Bicentennial in the mid-1970s. But with thousands of UP diesels roaming the system today, we now know that these three were just the originators of the scheme. These three remained unique, however, as the flag applied to their flanks differs from that applied to the rest - the blue field is smaller than one would expect, the pole to which the flag is attached is wooden (rather than metal) and the waving shape is different and includes some motion blur on the outer edge. (Commerce, California – November 18, 2001)
Not
just heritage schemes, not just commemorative schemes - this album is devoted to some of the world's most interesting paint schemes, past or present.
