Pan Am Repaint Thread

[calaisbranch]

And then there was one Smurf.....Nice to see the nose herald is catching on with the widecabs.

http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?20101 ... 323490.jpg

by Tim Hairston

[KSmitty]

Nice to see the nose herald is catching on with the widecabs.

Agreed, 100%.

On another note, 505 repainted WOW! Who would have thought that Guilford Rail System would outlive Pan Am Phase 1??? Not that I can say I mind the change. Now if only they would release the freight locomotives with black underbodies, trucks and pilots...

Is 505, or 511 the original Pan Am locomotive?

[drcrf93]

"Is 505, or 511 the original Pan Am locomotive?"

505. The first photo taken of 505 that I can find on NERAIL was on 11/4/2006, while 511 isn't until late December. I would rather have seen 511 be painted first of the two of them since the engineer's side has that awful looking grafitti. Seems like 505 was out of service for a pretty long time, may have gotten repairs as well as a repaint.

[calaisbranch]

I think that's the way it works. They go in for updates and/or overhauls and then get the paint at the finish.

[KSmitty]

I think that's the way it works. They go in for updates and/or overhauls and then get the paint at the finish.

Yeah, if a unit is OOS and it get repaired paint is a pretty sure thing right now. And 505 had been dead for a while now. Still I would have thought that it might have avoided the paint booth this time.

I would rather have seen 511 be painted first of the two of them since the engineer's side has that awful looking grafitti.

Is that ratty graffiti still there? I figured that after a few months they might atleast take the time to patch it up a little... They should even have that color paint still handy, that is if they are still painting boxcars in the "smurf" paint.

[greenus90]

I think that's the way it works. They go in for updates and/or overhauls and then get the paint at the finish.

Yeah, if a unit is OOS and it get repaired paint is a pretty sure thing right now. And 505 had been dead for a while now. Still I would have thought that it might have avoided the paint booth this time.

I would rather have seen 511 be painted first of the two of them since the engineer's side has that awful looking grafitti.

Is that ratty graffiti still there? I figured that after a few months they might atleast take the time to patch it up a little... They should even have that color paint still handy, that is if they are still painting boxcars in the "smurf" paint.

The'd prolly wait for 511 to go toes up before they touch the paint up....following repairs

[calaisbranch]

As of this morning, Tuesday, the remaining Smurf(511) is the south/west facing unit on the Bucksport-NMJ group. Still has the "tag" markings, too. 501 had some
ghetto script for a couple years before it was repainted.

[emdpower75]

If a railroad is short on power, then a paint job is the last thing to be considering on a operable locomotive. A good example of this would be the Conrail painted locomotives still roaming around on both CSX and NS. Locomotives have the BEST chance to see a paint job while in the shop waiting for parts, shop time, etc..

[MEC407]

Heck, look at Canadian Pacific... they're still running locomotives in Milwaukee Road paint, for heaven's sake! For reference, those locomotives were acquired by Soo Line in 1986, which means it's been at least 25 years since they've seen a paint booth.

[calaisbranch]

Some people call it rag-tag or bad for the image, but what's the hurry if the loco is running right? The way PAR has been doing it is....almost....sensible! Man, that took a bit to say considering who we're talking about.

[KSmitty]

All good points, I just thought that on one of their newer repaints, they might take the time to care about their image. I guess I could see why UP, or BNSF or any class one might not be too worried about one locomotive when they have up around 8500 units in almost as many different paint phases. But PAR, with 120 or so, I assumed they would stay on top of that a little better. Especially where they are still trying to rebrand, (as an aside, 4 years later, I for one still refer to Guilford, rather than Pan Am most of the time) but I guess thats were I fall into the category " young & naive."

Back to 505 for a minute, anyone know why it was a candidate for repaint? Compared with a lot of the units still running around in paint applied in the 90's, 505 had a brand new paint job, heck, 332 still is running around in Ph.2 Guilford paint (talk about not seeing the paintbooth in a while...) I understand that it was in the shop, but why delay release a few days for paint if they are so power short, and it already fits the "PAN AM" image?

[calaisbranch]

Nice to see the nose herald is catching on with the widecabs.

Agreed, 100%.

On another note, 505 repainted WOW! Who would have thought that Guilford Rail System would outlive Pan Am Phase 1??? Not that I can say I mind the change. Now if only they would release the freight locomotives with black underbodies, trucks and pilots...

Hey, "we've" done pretty good getting the nose heralds on the widecabs. Start charging consulting fees! Perhaps if we railfans b---h enough, they will do the black underbodies, too.

[MEC407]

I'd like to see them use an uncut strip of reflective tape from front to back, instead of using short pieces of tape placed every few feet... but that would cost more money, just like using more than one color of paint would.

[KSmitty]

I'd like to see them use an uncut strip of reflective tape from front to back, instead of using short pieces of tape placed every few feet... but that would cost more money, just like using more than one color of paint would.

Personally, I like the dark blue frame. If you look at major railroads, dashes are pretty standard. I believe the tape even comes perforated every 18 inches. All in all, I think the tape ruins the look of many paintschemes, but obviously more than makes up for that fact by making it safer at crossings. I'm just glad that when they switched from GRS to PAR, they switched tape color immediately, rather than use the rest of the orange roll on the first few blue locomotives, that 3M tape isn't exactly cheap...

[emdpower75]

There are unconfirmed reports that MEC 600 got repainted while spending its days and nights at Waterville for the second half of 2010 with an undisclosed problem. I mention this because here is a locomotive that is NOT deemed for service currently but utilized a portion of the time to get painted. Now repairs can be made whenever and the locomotive can go right back into service.