What hath BNSF wrought?! (New Logo/Paint Scheme)

Hopefully Buffet will buy the NS next, then merge it with BNSF and have the Atlantic, Pacific, and SANTA FE. Then they can re-introduce the Warbonnet, the finest paint scheme ever applied to a locomotive, which would be the biggest railroad marketing coup after...the AT&SF re-introducing the Warbonnet in 1989!

I don't understand the animosity towards the AT&SF, maybe it's just an inferiority complex or something. I mean, what did the BN ever do to make itself a railroad to admire? Their service was poor, and their infrastructure was still pretty backward even in the mid-1990s when I worked in the PNW. They still had non-bonded sidings in use (MOST of them, in fact) on the Wenatchee line running west from Spokane, WA (ex-GN) in the mid-1990s - nothing like moving trains into sidings at Restricted Speed as the 21st Century approaches! They would have essentially been bankrupt without Powder River coal due to all the employee lawsuits they had (NIHL and such), plus pollution issues (a BN employee/teacher at the NARRS in OP actually said as much), and they didn't invest in much of anything else. On the BN, if it wasn't a coal train, it got the old, worn out pieces of junk that had served its best years on coal trains for power. After the merger, some capacity improvements and modernization finally started to be done to parts of the BN OUTSIDE of the PRB, and new power finally started to show up on something besides coal trains. The BN-SF merger was a natural and necessary combination, as it allowed the two railroads to not be outflanked by the UP, which could offer both Northwest AND Southwest to midwest service, which neither ATSF or BN could do before the merger.

As for the new logo/paint, I quite frankly hate that the RR is called "BNSF," which doesn't even sound like a RR (like "CSX," another vomit-inducing RR name). It's a RR, it shouldn't have a name that makes it sound like a computer company or something. They need a better name for the RR more than a better paint scheme, but the two might be upgraded together...

While it appears that the 'Search' feature is 'bad order' at this time, there is a possibility that this is being addressed elsewhere at the Forum. If that be the case, please accept my apology.

September TRAINS has a Q & A with Matthew Rose, CEO BNSF, LLC.

An array of topics are covered, but since TRAINS was first a railfan magazine, and has morphed towards a management magazine over the years, I guess there has to be a 'return to the roots' and this question was certainly such;

(TRAINS is wisely protective of their copyrighted material, but I believe the typed Brief Passage is within the scope of Fair Use)

Brief passage:

• Q: Will BNSF have heritage locomotives in its future?
  
  A: Probably not. If you go back to the Burlington Northern family you go back in the Santa Fe family, then the merger family: we did have a lot of different locomotive paint schemes.Then when I changed the name from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe to BNSF and we made the final change, we're going to let this settle in for a while and let the locomotives catch up with us.

Never say 'never'.

espeefoamer wrote:

IC&E6565 wrote:The faster the BNSF Railway paints over the hideous "warbonnet" units the better, there has never been a more over rated color scheme in railroading history than that thing, I hate it, along the old Santa Fe railway company, they thought they were "God's Railroad", best thing that ever happened is the BNSF merger and the Heritage 1 scheme!

BLASPHEMY!!! The red/silver warbonnet was the best paint scheme ever put on a locomotive.The blue/yellow warbonnet was one of the finest freight paint schemes ever devised.(I wrote this post before reading the above comments.)

Reading this thread having visited the US from the U.K. I follow the US railroads and often stay in Las Vegas. Must say the BNSF has more variety to it than UP does! I only managed a photo of one - 6248 - in Southern Pacific livery. Apart from hire in traction they do all have a ‘same’ look to them. Especially the faded versions in the old branding or with worn flags. When kept clean they look better.

I went to Barstow this time to really get more BNSF traction as opposed to odd ones hired in working UP trains. All schemes still about in 2019 is nice. Had managed two in H1 version of BNSF - very nice but I do like the current version as well. A couple of oddballs with the latest letter style but in yellow as opposed to the standard BOLD yellow BNSF brand not in italics - still more than plenty of those about.

However so must agree with ATSF. 671 in red and silver with SantaFe branding. Proper war bonnet and very nice to see. Dirty locomotive maybe but considering it looked to be designed with a little more ‘edge’ and thanks to another member here I learnt that the livery honours the routes history. A much nicer colour scheme to my eyes. Must have looked amazing when freshly applied. 742 and 1403 also about as warbonnets but with BNSF branding which I gather these were branded when painted and BNSF was working on a new design. Still visually nice to see. The even older blue and yellow ties in with more than just US history - that and the most modern CSX are close to what was British Rail in the 1970-80’s period. Now our network is covered in many paint schemes some more appealing than others. Sadly none for a routes history. Plenty of older guises kicking about though but many also long gone sadly.

Look forward to my next visit in 2021 as I type this from my flight back to London. You guys have variety - and more ‘proper trains’ sure we have heritage and great stuff but one loco on 30 trucks and two locos if you are lucky is the norm here. A far cry from the three (even seen a 10!) locomotive train you guys run which are miles long. You have far more freight on the rails too!