MEC 307 in new paint

Unconfirmed reports say that the MEC 307 emerged from Waterville shops yesterday in Pan Am Scheme PHII. Anyone got any info on this?

It's confirmed. And it will be headed to Mohawk this week/weekend.

Here are some pics from the H.A.P.T. blog:

http://bp1.blogger.com/_LeC97UakCpk/SGx ... 1small.JPG

http://bp1.blogger.com/_LeC97UakCpk/SGx ... 6small.JPG

MEC #307 "Pan Am Railways" is on the move westward on RUED. I took these photographs of #307 leading RUED through Lawrence, Andover and Tewksbury at about 6AM today. RUED had to move around some cars at Wamesit and may have continued west afterward.

http://shawsheen.com/2008/grs5july/slides/IMG_7904.html
http://shawsheen.com/2008/grs5july/slides/IMG_7945.html
http://shawsheen.com/2008/grs5july/slides/IMG_7997.html
http://shawsheen.com/2008/grs5july/slides/IMG_8004.html

This "Pan Am" paint looks good on a conventional cab GP40.

If you look close you can see how the number board is colored in with a black Sharpie. That seems to be the new thing, instead of making new ones with a stencil and paint, they just color them in with a Magic Marker.

I could be wrong, but to me it looks like they used a can of spraypaint. If you look at the numberboard on the engineer's side, you can see what looks like paint drippings at the bottom of the numbers.

This pic is a good example: http://shawsheen.com/2008/grs5july/slides/IMG_7997.html

The edges of the numbers also have the "fuzzy" look of spraypaint.

Either way, Sharpie or spraypaint, it's not particularly attractive. Why repaint an entire locomotive but leave the numerboards looking like $#!T?

*Note: the preceding comment was merely an observation, not a pot shot at Pan Am or Pan Am employees.

307 has been tyed down in Westminster all afternoon, 506 same thing in Gardner, some shots,


http://photos.nerail.org/show/?order=by ... =ATHOLRAIL

I have a board for a Reading & Northern unit that they wanted white on black, so they put some vinyl or some other numbers on, painted it black, and peeled the numbers off. You'd think they could put vinyl letters on their numberboards... but is it 100% they've decided to go with this scheme? That may be why the quickie fudged numberboards.

lvrr325 wrote: but is it 100% they've decided to go with this scheme? That may be why the quickie fudged numberboards.

This is the new official scheme. More loco's will be hitting the paint shop soon.

Geez, couldn't they throw in a white frame stripe or something? This scheme does nothing for visibility...

2-inch white reflective striping... $44.44 for 150' on eBay... two rolls aught to cover three units, more if you cut it into 12" strips and leave a gap. Pan Am, are you listening?

The unit already has staggered white reflective strips along the frame, as required by FRA. All of their units have this (or yellow strips, in the case of units in GRS paint) -- it's the law.

Railroads may opt for a solid strip the entire length of the unit, but it is not a requirement.

lvrr325 wrote:2-inch white reflective striping... $44.44 for 150' on eBay... two rolls aught to cover three units, more if you cut it into 12" strips and leave a gap. Pan Am, are you listening?

Your math and your product suggestion are both way off.

First, the math. A GP40 (pretty much all of Pan Am's fleet) are just short of 60' long. If you striped both sides plus the front and rear pilot, you will be left with at best 20 or so feet from one roll. So two rolls would do two units at most with at best, 40' left. Not even enough to do one side of a third unit. Even if you cut it into strips and used the bare legal amount, you would still likley be lucky to do three units if you really pushed it.

Next is the tape itself. Not going to work. Scotchlite, Reflexite and all the other common reflective tape you find on police cars and at hardware stores will not cut it. The FRA requires a special type of reflective tape. For one, it's designed to last a long time in the harsh environment it will see on the railroad. The adhesive and material is very thick and rugged. And it also has to be very reflective at a number of angles. A few companies make it. Its very expensive. The most common brand actually says "FRA" throughout the surface so an inspector can tell right away if it's legit. The stuff you find at Auto Parts stores or for deep discounts will not last, nor be legal.

The FRA rules only allow for white or yellow. That is why UP has done away with the red reflective stripe around the frame that was common up untill this new law came out. It's also why you will no longer see Loco's leaving EMD and/or GE in primer anymore (Think NS's "Grey Ghosts"). The striping is so expensive and difficult to remove that no railroad would pay to have it installed on a locomotive in primer and then strip the tape and paint it later.

As with everything Pan Am does, expect the absolute bare minimum.

NV290 wrote:As with everything Pan Am does, expect the absolute bare minimum.

True. If they're too cheap to fab a new set of numberboards, why would they spend extra bucks on something that isn't mandatory?

NV290 wrote:

lvrr325 wrote:2-inch white reflective striping... $44.44 for 150' on eBay... two rolls aught to cover three units, more if you cut it into 12" strips and leave a gap. Pan Am, are you listening?

Your math and your product suggestion are both way off.

First, the math. A GP40 (pretty much all of Pan Am's fleet) are just short of 60' long. If you striped both sides plus the front and rear pilot, you will be left with at best 20 or so feet from one roll. So two rolls would do two units at most with at best, 40' left. Not even enough to do one side of a third unit. Even if you cut it into strips and used the bare legal amount, you would still likley be lucky to do three units if you really pushed it.

Next is the tape itself. Not going to work. Scotchlite, Reflexite and all the other common reflective tape you find on police cars and at hardware stores will not cut it. The FRA requires a special type of reflective tape. For one, it's designed to last a long time in the harsh environment it will see on the railroad. The adhesive and material is very thick and rugged. And it also has to be very reflective at a number of angles. A few companies make it. Its very expensive. The most common brand actually says "FRA" throughout the surface so an inspector can tell right away if it's legit. The stuff you find at Auto Parts stores or for deep discounts will not last, nor be legal.

The FRA rules only allow for white or yellow. That is why UP has done away with the red reflective stripe around the frame that was common up untill this new law came out. It's also why you will no longer see Loco's leaving EMD and/or GE in primer anymore (Think NS's "Grey Ghosts"). The striping is so expensive and difficult to remove that no railroad would pay to have it installed on a locomotive in primer and then strip the tape and paint it later.

As with everything Pan Am does, expect the absolute bare minimum.

As long as we're going to the nth degree, 50 feet per side just on the sill per two sides per unit is 100', leaves 50' per roll, and the tape in question is made by 3M for use on highway trailers, school busses and other applications and guaranteed to last 7 years - it may not be FRA approved, but it is D.O.T. approved. It comes in solid white and solid yellow as well as the no longer allowed red and red/white. It's not some discount store junk.

I didn't think a tongue in cheek suggestion warranted posting the eBay link to the product in question, though. Or the response it got.