Metro-North 40th Heritage Wraps

Everyone - This is the second group of FL9 pictures:
CR #5039 www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=759823
CR #5053 www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=827585
CR #5059 www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=862543
MNCR #530 www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=63562
MNCR #532 www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1504578
MNCR #2007 www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4628917
PC #5018 www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=5349044

This is the type of historical information that makes my Railroad.Net membership worthwhile...
I joined up 19 years ago today - February 7, 2005 - and it has been an interesting "ride"...MACTRAXX

Thanks for that!

Jeff Smith wrote: ↑Wed Feb 07, 2024 7:18 am Thanks for that!

JS: You are welcome...This is the type of historical information that I most enjoy - especially when
I recall a given subject first hand such as FL9 locomotives research...

Here is another PC FL9 photo (#5049 and #5020) with an interesting vehicle addition:
www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=5339249
Note the NY license plate on the Volkswagen Beetle: PC-968 (NY 1973-1986 Orange Plates)
This was a Putnam County Clerk issue - the assigned pertinent two PC series were PC-1 to PC-1000
and 101-PC to 1000-PC from a NY 1973 series plate by county allocation list that I have...For the record
Putnam County, NY (County Seat-Carmel) borders Westchester County on the south; Fairfield County, CT east;
Dutchess County north and the Hudson River/Orange County west...Older NY plates were County-coded which
some NYS counties-primarily lower-population Upstate-still use a form of even to this day. I was once an avid
collector of license plates - the old NY county coding being a prime personal interest learning NYS geography...
MACTRAXX

Beetle is '68-69.

NH2060 wrote:What do y’all think it’s going to be:

A) MTA blue and yellow with mating worms.

B) 13D “dip” black with mating worms and Eurostile font.

C) One of the “discolored” versions of option A.

And the winner is: *drumroll*

https://youtu.be/Xv2FSsWasUc?si=XSM4mbuhmvXwyEVV

While it looks nice, it's a little disappointing, since it's essentially a repeat of the Conrail unit... Going with B would have been both accurate and different from the other ones.

Well, my guess was right then...

Everyone: MNCR decided on the Penn Central FL9 NYS blue/yellow heritage color scheme...
No surprise here...
Compare #217 with FL9 units 5049 and 5020 in the photo in my last previous post above...
Being wraps the yellow will not fade into the off-white that some FL9s experienced...

PC and Conrail's Metropolitan Region under the MTA along with CTDOT's sponsorship of the CT
segments of the New Haven Lines were almost a separate entity - making it actually quite easy
to create what became the Metro-North Commuter Railroad back in 1983...

I take exception to the description of the Penn Central logo being described as "mating worms"...
Those terms were NOT used in the 1970s specifically...What was the origin of this "railfan slang"?
To me this is just another type of foamer nonsense that I would rather ignore...

I never had a problem with the PC logo or colors (other than using "funeral black" on locomotives)
Penn Central had an interesting run of 8 years and two months - friction between the "Green" and
"Red" factions and the well-documented financial problems and bankruptcy being most noteable...
February 1, 1968 to March 31, 1976...April 1, 1976 is when "ConRail" (original spelling) began...

For the next Heritage Wrap the early 1980s platinum mist with blue side stripes coming to a front end
point with "M-CENTRAL" should be next - I thought that this was a refreshing change for the select few
FL9 units that got this MTA livery until MNCR brought out their own new color scheme in 1983...

Again it is good to note that MNCR remembers its ancestry in this manner...MACTRAXX

jamoldover wrote: ↑Thu Feb 29, 2024 7:28 pm While it looks nice, it's a little disappointing, since it's essentially a repeat of the Conrail unit... Going with B would have been both accurate and different from the other ones.

I feel the same way, I think the black dip paint job would have been more appropriate

Acela82 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 01, 2024 11:06 am Well, my guess was right then...

pc217.jpg

I just sent out an Athearn unit for repainting into the current Empire Service livery. It's a shame we're an ocean apart or I'd see if you'd do one in the NYC scheme for me lol.

I already did the NYC and it was a pita so I guess I wouldn’t made another one anyways…

MACTRAXX wrote: ↑Fri Mar 01, 2024 12:25 pm I take exception to the description of the Penn Central logo being described as "mating worms"...
Those terms were NOT used in the 1970s specifically...What was the origin of this "railfan slang"?
To me this is just another type of foamer nonsense that I would rather ignore...

I have to disagree about the phrase “mating worms” not being used back in the day. I, for one, can’t remember a time when the PC logo wasn’t called that, at least by some. It’s fine that you don’t like the phrase, but it most definitely is not something recent.

I worked for PC and never met a co-worker, red or green, who liked the logo* (not to be distinguished by calling it a herald), and "mating" was not always the operative word at that time, although "worms" was there from day one. As a logo it lacked a needed feature: at a distance it merely looked like a parallelogram with no identifying elements. If you have to see it up close to identify it, it fails. (I never found out what the consultants got paid for it.)

* Hey, the red hats and green hats agreed on something ...

Erie-Lackawanna wrote: ↑Fri Mar 01, 2024 7:42 pm

MACTRAXX wrote: ↑Fri Mar 01, 2024 12:25 pm I take exception to the description of the Penn Central logo being described as "mating worms"...
Those terms were NOT used in the 1970s specifically...What was the origin of this "railfan slang"?
To me this is just another type of foamer nonsense that I would rather ignore...

I have to disagree about the phrase “mating worms” not being used back in the day. I, for one, can’t remember a time when the PC logo wasn’t called that, at least by some. It’s fine that you don’t like the phrase, but it most definitely is not something recent.

Jim: Thanks for the reply...It is not so much taking any personal exception to the PC logo - it is that I
do not remember any slang term used when I was growing up - son of a PC employee I was a teenager when
PC ended in 1976...The PC logo meant "failure" in many aspects during PC's 8 year 2 month lifespan...

I recall that someplace in the Penn Central Forum section there is a discussion about the PC logo - specifically
the company that designed the logo and lettering font for the Penn Central Transportation Company (PC's
full given name) which was a 60s era advertising consultant (think "Mad Men") based in Manhattan...

The PRR and NY Central heralds were so much better designed along with their liveries...(what surprised me
is how short-lived the NYC "cigar band" actually was - only about four years if I am correct during the 1960s)
Penn Central used jade green on some equipment (NYC influence) which may have given a different image
as a first impression along with the red C used during 1968-69 if this color scheme was more widely used...

On the other hand some logos DO deserve slang terms for their description...The best example is the MTA
"Pac-Man" that has been in use since 1994...I never cared for this logo feeling that the two-tone blue and/
or circle M (used by MNCR) was much better...The MTA logo reminds me of a gadfly that would attend and
testify at many MTA public hearings (80's-90's) with the overall criticism "MTA-Money Thrown Away"...

Another thought: I never heard the term "beach ball" used to describe the 1983-1984 MNCR FL9 color
scheme until recent years - I think that this is a good livery using three colors that work well together...
It was quite a change from the Conrail and PC days for the FL9 fleet for starters literally at that time...

In closing MNCR has an interesting NYC and NH origin ancestry - the 40th Anniversary wraps remind
all interested of that historical aspect...MACTRAXX