B&M Passenger Car "Blue-Bird" Colors Question.

Anybody out there know what the color scheme was for the body and numbers/lettering on pre-war "heavyweight" passenger cars when run with "Blue-bird" diesels ?

I believe the blue-bird scheme was introduced in the 50's by Pat McGinness, well after ALL the wars. The heavyweights ran behind the color scheme to your left, and behind big black monsters called steam engines !

Weren't any of the old pre-war heavyweights painted to match the bluebird diesels ? I suppose it's possible that they painted the engines only and not the older equipment, but generally when a new color scheme is introduced for engines, at least a few name train passenger cars get colored to match.

There were never any B&M cars painted in blue. The B&M had all maroon and gold colored cars with some green colored cars mixed in. In the late 40's early 50's the B&M purchased the first stainless steel cars with maroon and gold going down the middle of the car from end to end. When the B&M purchased the rest of the RDC's (150 in all I believe) in June 1956 they retired most; if not all of their older passenger equipment; also ending the era of steam for the B&M. Some RDC's game in all stainless steel and some similar to the stainless steel coaches mentioned above. Not sure about the logos though. I have seen many pictures of RDC's with the minute man logo and the "Blue Bird" logo on the front of them. I'm assuming the all stainless steel ones game in the Blue Bird logo and were the ones purchased in 1956 with the maroon striped RDC’s and Minute Man logo being purchased in the previous years leading up to 1956. I have also seen an all stainless steel RDC with the B&M Minute Man logo... maybe that was done at a later date; I don’t know. Even with the Blue Birds; some engines (mostly switchers) when repainted kept their original maroon and gold. I was under the impression that the switchers that were originally painted black with the red striped noises were the ones repainted in the blue bird style but now I'm getting way off topic.

Locomotive hauled passenger trains ran out of Bostonon the B&M until October 25, 1959 (on PAPER, actually it is believed that ONE additional loco hauled train to Portland ran for an additional week or so, but that's getting off topic).
I would agree with the above poster who stated that NO heavyweight coaches got painted in the blue colors. INTERESTINGLY, there is evidence that suggests that a very few prewar heavyweghts DID get repainted during the McGinnis bluebird era, HOWEVER they were repainted into the maroon colors.
This is NOT to say that such a bluebird scheme was not designed for these cars. Perhaps some long forgotten blueprints for such designs may surface sometime.
One thing that has been discovered recently was several UNUSED designs for bluebird schemes to be tried on the passenger diesels. These are basicly variations of the ones that were used and that we are familiar with.
Being the fan of the HERBER MATTER /McGINNIS color schemes that I am, several years ago, I speculated what a heavyweight coach might look like in the Bluebird scheme and applied it to an O gauge model.
The scheme was as such:
BLUE body below the widows, with B&M insignias next to the vestibules.
BLACK window band.
BLUE Letterboard above the roof, WHITE lettering.
BLACK roof.
Once again, this was purely speculative, but the thought of seeing a string of these coaches rolling out of North Station behind a blue E-7 warms the heart.

I seem to recall from some fuzzy memory seeing a picture of a B&M work train in the 1950's or 1960's with a freshly painted heavyweight serving as a crew mess or bunk car - pretty sure it was in fresh maroon paint. The book was one of the two "America's Railroads" books by Don Ball - unfortunately, both of my copies are out on loan right now. So it seems B&M practice for the remaining heavyweights, which were very few, would be maroon.

The Talgo Train's engines were in the blue/white scheme, but I can't remember any color on the coaches. Anyone?

Rockingham Racer wrote:The Talgo Train's engines were in the blue/white scheme, but I can't remember any color on the coaches. Anyone?

I have a photo of them in stainless steel with the B&M logo on a blue placard on the first and last car.

I've got information on B&M diesels, steam locomotives, passenger cars and
paint schemes at: http://www.faracresfarm.com/jbvb/rr/bmrr/b_and_m.html

Work train coaches and diners continued to get maroon paint until they were
finally retired in the 1970s. The Talgo was all stainless except for the locos.
The pre-1956 RDCs, 3814 and a few switchers and dual-service Fs were the
only units to get re-painted in McGinnis blue/black/white. No heavyweight or
lightweight passenger equipment.

The Budds, known as "Highliners" on the B&M and also stainless steel carbodies, were painted white on each end with the blue B&M letters McGinnins-style.

Rockingham Racer wrote:The Budds, known as "Highliners" on the B&M and also stainless steel carbodies, were painted white on each end with the blue B&M letters McGinnins-style.

I think that you are confusing the New Haven RR "Buddliners" with the B&M's. As I recall, B&M's retained their silver ends with large "BM" logos under each end window, blue "B", white "M". New Haven's had the white ends, black end doors, with orange stripe on the two front panels with white "NH" logos inside the orange stripe at the same locations during the McGinnis era.

3rdrail wrote:I think that you are confusing the New Haven RR "Buddliners" with the B&M's. As I recall, B&M's retained their silver ends with large "BM" logos under each end window, blue "B", white "M".

You're both correct. A number of B&M RDCs (but by no means all) received white ends with the blue and black McGinnis logos. Others just had the McGinnis logo applied over stainless steel. If I had one of those newfangled scanner things I'd post some of my photos!

Tom,

Thinking on it some more, didn't the original version just have the Minuteman logo on the stainless steel?

Rockingham Racer wrote:Thinking on it some more, didn't the original version just have the Minuteman logo on the stainless steel?

Yes, many of the B&M Budds were delivered with the Minuteman logo on unpainted ends. The McGinnis blue and white scheme and logo didn't start showing up on B&M rolling stock until 1956, by which time about half of the B&M's RDC fleet had already been delivered.

From circa 1957 to circa 1967, all the RDC-1s, 2s and 3s had white ends,
black end doors and blue/black/white McGinnis heralds under each cab
window. About 1968, RDCs started showing up with stainless ends/doors
and a simplified herald. AFAIK, all the white ends were gone as of the 1977
sale to the MBTA. The B&M never painted the ends of RDC-9s.