Conrail MOW trucks

The old Conrail guys I have worked with try to tell me those trucks are green.

I recall seeing the blue Conrail MOW trucks from the late 1970's/early 1980's. Seems like they were marked for ETL which I think was the abbreviation for Excelsior Truck Leasing or something like that.

gravelyfan wrote:I recall seeing the blue Conrail MOW trucks from the late 1970's/early 1980's. Seems like they were marked for ETL which I think was the abbreviation for Excelsior Truck Leasing or something like that.

Not all blue Conrail trucks had ETL lettering. My fathers company truck, a 1978 Chevy stepside was blue with full Conrail markings. Not sure but I think he had it until issued a new truck in 1985 which was in the mustard yellow.

lvrr325 wrote:Conrail trucks were always yellow, GM trucks were standard GM fleet dark yellow. The same color was used on other fleet trucks and on Suburbans sold to be used as school busses.

Beginning in about 1993 with the newer style Chevrolets, the hi-rail trucks went to a flourescent yellow color. I've seen a few other non-RR vehicles in this color (a Niagara Airport surplus Chevrolet pickup), which makes me think it was another fleet option.

CSX vehicles tend to normally be white, I saw a brand new Chevrolet truck yesterday in the white colors. A friend has a retired one that is also white. I'm not sure why they chose that color, since they get dirty and look pretty terrible in a hurry. But it's another GM fleet color.

From what I can see, Conrail and CSX both favored General Motors with their vehicle purchases, I can't think of a late model work truck I've seen that wasn't a Chevrolet or GMC, unless it was so large a truck it was beyond what GM produced.

If you look around nowadays you'll notice that the vast majority of so called "vocation trucks" (i.e delivery vans, construction trucks, service vehicles) are white. Large fleet operators who traditionally had their trucks painted in the company colors are moving to all white fleets. There is a very simple explanation for this: nowadays the manufacturers charge extra for any other color. It's kind of like the early days of the auto industry when you could buy a Ford in "any color you like as long as it's black".

v8interceptor wrote:

lvrr325 wrote:Conrail trucks were always yellow, GM trucks were standard GM fleet dark yellow. The same color was used on other fleet trucks and on Suburbans sold to be used as school busses.

Beginning in about 1993 with the newer style Chevrolets, the hi-rail trucks went to a flourescent yellow color. I've seen a few other non-RR vehicles in this color (a Niagara Airport surplus Chevrolet pickup), which makes me think it was another fleet option.

CSX vehicles tend to normally be white, I saw a brand new Chevrolet truck yesterday in the white colors. A friend has a retired one that is also white. I'm not sure why they chose that color, since they get dirty and look pretty terrible in a hurry. But it's another GM fleet color.

From what I can see, Conrail and CSX both favored General Motors with their vehicle purchases, I can't think of a late model work truck I've seen that wasn't a Chevrolet or GMC, unless it was so large a truck it was beyond what GM produced.

If you look around nowadays you'll notice that the vast majority of so called "vocation trucks" (i.e delivery vans, construction trucks, service vehicles) are white. Large fleet operators who traditionally had their trucks painted in the company colors are moving to all white fleets. There is a very simple explanation for this: nowadays the manufacturers charge extra for any other color. It's kind of like the early days of the auto industry when you could buy a Ford in "any color you like as long as it's black".

I seemed to notice that in Canada CP Rail Trucks where eaither Yellow, Red, white or some times light Blue. Must be they buy whats on the lot??

Most motor vehicle companies offered various basic fleet colors, such as the yellow used on Conrail trucks. You'll find the paint is simply coded as a "dark Yellow" and was also used on Suburbans, vans, and cutaway vans which saw school-bus conversions.

White is just another fleet color. Yellow is still available, I've seen trucks painted in it - the choice just seems to vary on the whim of the company buying the trucks.

lvrr325 wrote:Most motor vehicle companies offered various basic fleet colors, such as the yellow used on Conrail trucks. You'll find the paint is simply coded as a "dark Yellow" and was also used on Suburbans, vans, and cutaway vans which saw school-bus conversions.

White is just another fleet color. Yellow is still available, I've seen trucks painted in it - the choice just seems to vary on the whim of the company buying the trucks.

Anouther odd color that i have not seen in a long time is bright Orange and bright red I have seen only a few railroads with truck painted in these colors. Anyways what colors did the outher fallen flag railroads that went into conrail use on the MOW truck Fleets??

EL used yellow; Lehigh Valley used a medium blue or greenish blue (may have appeared this way over time as paint faded, probably varied from one vehicle manufacturer to another, too). Believe PC used yellow. CNJ, RDG - ?


FWIW, I think smaller roads particularly where they buy trucks one at a time, color choice is whatever they like - while most NYS&W trucks have been white or yellow, I saw one a couple weeks ago painted dark metallic blue that's likely a regular Ford color. Was decked out as a high-railer with a work box, too.

Southern Pacific used orange - have about a '54 Chevy big truck that the repaint has worn off to reveal a bright orange scheme and SP Lines decals on the doors.

Fleet colors can be special order, too, such as USAF or Army vehicles; have a former USAF truck and the RPO code for the paint is labeled "Special Order" -

Most if not all RDG 1960's and 70's MOW trucks were Fords, and painted med.blue color with the big yellow "boxed" herald on the side. Before that they had GM ,Studebakers ect. that were painted the old drab olive green.This was the same as old bell telephone and post office colors.