MBTA Commuter Rail Colors

Now I know this picture is an old one and the design of the paint scheme has changed since then but look how much nicer the maroon paint looks vs. the purple that's still used today. Why purple?
Also does anyone know how many F40's were painted in this color?
Click on the link to see the picture http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?pho ... &key=bmcdr

That's really good looking, the T should use that instead of the current colors...

b&m 1566 wrote: Also does anyone know how many F40's were painted in this color?

If you read the caption again, you will see that this was the only F40 to wear that scheme.

I believe the 1013 is one of the F40's that has not received the latest paint scheme.

I actually like that paint. It can free up the purple color for a new rapid transit line. But the color will match the agency's rep, crap. People will probably start calling the commuter rail trains Crap Trains.

It's also very similar to today's paint scheme on the front end of the stretch F40s.

F40 1013 got that unique paint scheme following repairs from a minor collision. I agree that it looked really neat. There were also a couple FP10s similarly painted, but as you know the maroon never became standard.

A couple of the ex-Burlington Northern GP9's also received that scheme.

JD

CSX Conductor wrote:

b&m 1566 wrote: Also does anyone know how many F40's were painted in this color?

If you read the caption again, you will see that this was the only F40 to wear that scheme.

I believe the 1013 is one of the F40's that has not received the latest paint scheme.

CSX Conductor I did read the caption but what does that prove. There were other MBTA trains painted like that too, like that of the F10's as TomNelligan already mentioned. All I wanted to know was if other F40's were painted like that too.

Ok, the answer to your question is no, like CSX Conductor said 1013 was the only F40 to recieve that paint.

CSX, there are no F40PH's in the latest paint scheme. Only the rebuilds (F40PH-2C's) and the geeps have the new paint scheme. 1014 will be the first F40 to be painted in that scheme.

I don't know if the 1014 will be repainted by NRE or anybody. Since the screamers are old and among the intial retirement candidates, I doubt paint is in the offing for the 1014.

BTW, the 3247 should've been maroon/silver, but that also went by the boards...sigh..

D

So does anyone know why the MBTA went with purple? PURPLE OF ALL COLORS, well pink would be worse, but not to offend anyone, I just don't care to much for those colors (brown and yellow would look better). I think maroon and silver with the gold trim would have looked a lot better. It has nothing to do with the fact that the B&M had maroon and gold, it just looks nicer than what they choose to use; though I have to say I like the new paint scheme on the engines.

What's wrong with purple? Granted, certain things should never be purple, but I actually like having a (somewhat) "royal purple" bordered by the thin goldish-yellow stripes. It's very much like the scheme used by the Atlantic Coast Line on their streamlined E- and F-units, which had quite an impressive appearance. Personally, aside from the 1013 and a couple of the similarly-painted F10s, I never liked any of the other experimental maroon MBTA engines that were tried. The 1921 is another story of course, but in general I found that the maroon seemed a little too dark.

Besides, the Brown Line just doesn't have the same ring to it...

b&m 1566 wrote:So does anyone know why the MBTA went with purple? PURPLE OF ALL COLORS

When the "Purple Line" concept was introduced around 1977, that was basically the only common color that hadn't been taken. Red, green, blue, orange, and yellow (buses) were all in use, and all the other basic shades (black, while, pink, gold) either had sociopolitical implications that wouldn't work for a public agency, or were so obscure (magenta? chartreuse?) as to be silly.

TomNelligan wrote:When the "Purple Line" concept was introduced around 1977, that was basically the only common color that hadn't been taken. Red, green, blue, orange, and yellow (buses) were all in use, and all the other basic shades (black, while, pink, gold) either had sociopolitical implications that wouldn't work for a public agency, or were so obscure (magenta? chartreuse?) as to be silly.

Isn't magenta the shade of purple used by the MBTA?

Jim D.

RailBus63 wrote:Isn't magenta the shade of purple used by the MBTA?

I guess it is, but they don't call it the "Magenta Line".