Pan Am's Heritage Locomotives

OMG! that's a beauty! I'm alot surprised they kept it as #77 and not a more traditional 17**'s one but no complaints here....

Just a question thou, are there still plans to paint to more heritage units?

Guilford Guy9887 wrote:OMG! that's a beauty! I'm alot surprised they kept it as #77 and not a more traditional 17**'s one but no complaints here....

Just a question thou, are there still plans to paint to more heritage units?

I was told 1 in each: B&M Maroon, B&M Blue and MEC gold. So assuming they're sticking to their original plan there should be 2 more coming.

If I write them a really nice letter, do you think I can convince them to do one in MEC Pine Green as well? Hey, it's only fair if they're doing two B&M units, they should do two MEC units as well.

I have to say 77 looks quite smashing! Even if the paint scheme and number aren't historically accurate for that unit, ANYTHING would look great in B&M maroon and gold.

I'd say this ranks right up there with the FP9s on my list of "things that are totally out of character for this company." I love it.

I had heard 3 units as well, I figured they would all have "Pan Am Railways" on them, then they would have an obvious MEC heritage unit, an obvious B&M unit and the maroon and gold could be either since both RR's used the Maroon & Gold back in the day...

WOW!!! That is a beautiful looking engine; I look forward to seeing the other two!

Looks very sharp! Now, lets get Hobo 1921 and CSRR 573 together with it and take them for a ride!

YouTube member "tar6569" caught the new and lovely ST 77 in action at Danville Junction:

http://youtu.be/a6WC3F-fTDI

Yes, the shiny 77 is an attention-grabber, but then rolling balls of aluminum foil also grab my attention. "Heritage" usually means at least a nod to precedent. McGinnis, Barriger, or Bicentennial motifs, even though those blues don't agree with the blue of the OCS, would have been better. If Lionel had produced this, the laughter would have been overwhelming. Mebbe next time...
My complaints aside, serious congratulations to the Waterville paint crew for their execution!

beautiful engine.

B&M Blue (not sure what paint scheme, assume mcginnis era) and MEC units coming.

jaymac wrote:If Lionel had produced this, the laughter would have been overwhelming. Mebbe next time...

Just like the time Atlas(?) released MEC harvest gold GP35's in the 251-263 number range? :D

I don't care that the B&M GP9's never had the maroon and gold, I just think its a complete 180 turn for this company, for years they have systematically painted over, scrapped, sold or stuffed in the backshop outta sight of the general public everything gold, green, blue and maroon and covered their rich history in dark grays and washed out oranges...Its a stunning locomotive, something to add wonderful color the rails of New England!

I guess the un-prototypical-ness is not so bad if you think of it as being similar to what UP has done with their heritage units -- none of those paint schemes actually existed in the past, nor did any of those roads own SD70ACes... but it's a nice way of acknowledging that those predecessor roads existed, and still exist, in the hearts of many employees and fans.

As far as other B&M paint schemes are concerned, I'm rather fond of this one -- even though it's not very flashy -- because it reminds me of my childhood:

http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPictur ... id=1163869


This scheme, even though one could argue that it represents a dark time in B&M history, would be really cool to see in glossy new paint:

http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPictur ... id=2577844


P.S. Dear Pan Am, please feel free to do another unit in maroon & gold, and letter it like this. Sincerely, me

Although my favorite is maroon and gold, I love the look of the "blue birds". I hope that is the scheme they use for the next b&m painted unit. The "blue dip" is okay and I won't complain if that's what they choose.
I can't wait to see the MEC "yellow bird" either.

To show that I am actually capable of optimism, I'm hoping the miniature-golf twins, PAR1 and PAR2, get a maroon-and-gold makeover. F-units looking the way F-units should! The Minuteman on the nose would also be a nice nod to the Patriot Corridor.

Talk about going from the "outhouse" to the "penthouse". The 77 looks very regal in it's B & M Maroon and Gold livery. Wasn't is fairly recent that all the GP9's were stored away out of service ? It is great to see Pan Am, "respect the classics" sort of speak. Perhaps a MEC scheme and a blue B & M scheme on a couple of the remaining GP9's that are in good shape and won't be a waste of paint. I'm with the masses on this one.. "Who would have thunk it". It is nice to see Pan Am do this.. Who knows maybe a cleaned up and revived ST 643 may not be a tall order ?

As much as like seeing the gp9's get some love, I think some of the 40's need some love too. The gp40-2w would have been perfect for the maroon/gold scheme.

Just one question thou. I'm I the only one that noticed a rapid slow down in the number of blue dips that are being done? Are they still working on painting the gp/sd40's?