Great Smoky Mountains Railroad train waits to depart Dillsboro, North Carolina with a train full of passengers for an excursion to Bryson City. GSMR 777 was built in September 1954 for Union Pacific as UP EMD GP9 277. It wore at least five paint schemes for the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad according to photographs I have seen online. It first wore the colorful blue, red and yellow scheme. It was then painted into the fictional “Illinois Southern” paint scheme from the Harrison Ford/Tommy Lee Jones movie “The Fugitive.” This locomotive was not seen in the movie, but it did power the actual train from behind in the famous derailment scheme of the film.
After the film, she wore and yellow and red scheme before being painted in the scheme she was wearing when I made this photograph. The last scheme she wore was green with white lettering. She was retired in 2020 and is now being used as a parts source to keep the other diesel locomotives on the roster in serviceable condition.
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.
