Genessee & Wyoming fugly

[sirenwerks]

I have no idea of the era or location of the scheme you posted.
I’ve never seen it, but I agree, that’s hideous!
Your post intimated that what you see locally is the scheme that you posted and I know that’s not true.
What I posted a photo of, is their current scheme.

That G&W center cab in the pic is in the Netherlands, IIRC.  And yea, I am familiar with the latest G&W. As I mentioned, I live not too far from the Portland & Western line to Forest Grove and, while fresh paint doesn't make it up here that often, I have seen them further south in the valley.


That orange, black and yellow may mean something to the good folk of Retsof ad the Wyoming Valley but, at the very least, G&W could come up with a loco graphic and logo and incorporate local colors on the locos to maintain a sense of connection.  Then, even if foreign G&W locos ended up on another G&W line, you'd be able to tell the heritage.  But otherwise, the orange/black/yellow scheme usually has no local meaning or incites no local pride/support.  It's just corporate colors. 


As anyone would know, black and orange are the colors of Oregon State and its Beavers, (but it's the wrong orange), so G&W could have owned that idea, but that yellow is an insurance company's concoction if ever there was one and nothing else and should be replaced by white reflective striping to create a more pleasing palette. Now, admittedly I hate yellow - it's the color of insanity and Portland has one of the largest populations of psychologically unstable folk as it is. But G&W could have riffed off of  the state colors of blue and yellow (MAX colors) or gone all Springfield Terminal with the green and yellow colors of University of Oregon Ducks or, my favorite, purple and white with the University of Portland colors.


Of the G&W locos that run past my house, my favorite are the blue and yellow ATSF paint outs. Afterall, Oregon gets so many visitors from California as it is, those Geeps seem more relative to Portlandia and the Willamette Valley than those orange-skinned NYers...

[learmoia]

G&W could come up with a loco graphic and logo and incorporate local colors on the locos to maintain a sense of connection.  Then, even if foreign G&W locos ended up on another G&W line, you'd be able to tell the heritage.  But otherwise, the orange/black/yellow scheme usually has no local meaning or incites no local pride/support.  It's just corporate colors. 

So your solution is that G&W maintain 'local' paint schemes to represent the heritage for every road they own? 
(Do we factor in that most of those roads likely had a rainbow coalition lease units before G&W came along)

Or the paint scheme needs to represent the heritage of the locomotive? (regardless of the the location..)

From a business standpoint, both of those ideas sound more costly and incoherent then just having 1 paint scheme applied across the board (and not changing it).

I'm not necessarily a fan of the G&W scheme.. I'd replace the yellow with black, but it serves it's purpose of corporate unity.

I think it's more creative than what Watco is doing.

[learmoia]

Wait a minute!!!... I just now saw the Euro photo that you were referencing in your initial post..
What you are ranting about as an 'UGLY G&W paint scheme'.. is a G&W Patch of what the road used before!!!..


So.... yeah.. do a bit of research before you start your rant..

And it looks like G&W is doing the normal Orange and Black Repaint on everything.
.. Actually one of the models sort of illustrates what it would look like without the yellow frame..

[sirenwerks]

So your solution is that G&W maintain 'local' paint schemes to represent the heritage for every road they own? 
(Do we factor in that most of those roads likely had a rainbow coalition lease units before G&W came along)


Or the paint scheme needs to represent the heritage of the locomotive? (regardless of the the location..)

Wow, where'd you get that from?


Except for the mention of the ATSF paint-outs at the end of my last post (which was purely a literary mechanism) I didn't mention using previous road schemes. Especially considering the Portland & Western is a mash-up of Portland Terminal, SP&S, and Espee trackage and locos are 2nd/3rd/4th-hand Geeps.  Good lord, today's P&W scheme would have to be green/gold/red/grey/light blue then, which may prove uglier than G&W's orange/black/yellow.


You're defending the G&W scheme so much I am beginning to think you're an employee or stockholder.

I mentioned localities, railroads aside, something more the local denizens could relate to. I guess the Monon would be a good representation of this, with its two schemes - black and gold used by both DePauw University and Purdue University and the red and white used by  Wabash College, and similar to the colors of Indiana University.  It doesn't have to be about local colleges, per se, just something that is meaningful to the communities the RR serves.  I think a universal graphic outline that could be filled in with local colors (and logo unity) would be a better choice than forcing orange/black/yellow on every place across the country (unless G&W hopes to fill in the blanks one day and become a seamless transcontinental road, at which point it will need to consider graphically setting itself apart from the BNSF scheme that it rhymes.


Take for instance Amtrak's Pacific NW region scheme featured on the Cascade rolling stock. It fits the rainy and foggy demeanor of the region better than shiny red, white and blue.  Another good representation is the local to me but now-defunct Port of Tillamook Bay. It's cow scheme represented the Tillamook area's dairy farming/producing heritage and, since painting that scheme cost more, it only painted a few units like that and had a matching, simplified stripe Southern-esque scheme that carried the same colors and created unity in lash-ups. 

[wes_sutton]

This has to be one of the most ridiculous threads on TR I've ever seen.

It's just a colour scheme that's all. I quite like photographing it, but still joke about The Borg.

As has been pointed out, but needs re-affirming, the pic in the first post is of the original Rail Feeding colours patched for G&W - hardly a good way to start a rant.

End of the day the G & W colours are hardly a crime against humanity

[CRL]

The bright yellow is obviously a day-glow safety yellow for visibility purposes, IMHO. It is just about neon in its reflectivity.
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[MK]

I thought Gateway only makes computers?   

[peteski]

Looks liek a bovine camo  livery.   

[wazzou]

Tillamook is Dairy Country. 
Known for the Tillamook Creamery that makes Cheese, Ice Cream, Sour Cream, Yogurt and so on.

[mu26aeh]

Tillamook ice cream is some of the best out there 😋

[nkalanaga]

I like that 653-01!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Tillamook ice cream is some of the best out there 😋

EXCEPT the Cookies and Cream. For some reason, it's terrible. I was SHOCKED given how good the rest of their stuff is!

[cv_acr]

while I understand the concept of branding, forcing the same paint scheme, especially one so grotesque, onto communities across the US is a) wrong headed and b) mean.

Except for the mention of the ATSF paint-outs at the end of my last post (which was purely a literary mechanism) I didn't mention using previous road schemes. Especially considering the Portland & Western is a mash-up of Portland Terminal, SP&S, and Espee trackage and locos are 2nd/3rd/4th-hand Geeps.  Good lord, today's P&W scheme would have to be green/gold/red/grey/light blue then, which may prove uglier than G&W's orange/black/yellow.

What exactly IS your proposal?

Regardless of your like/dislike for the specific colours, a company like GW is going to want to have a consistent branding. You're arguing against this, so therefore the only alternate suggestion is that each railway has some sort of unique paint scheme.

And since these railways transfer units between properties, you're right back into "dog's breakfast".

[GhengisKong]

I'd rather the WATCO scheme.