what's with the BNSF 9821 color scheme?

anyone know anything behind the color scheme on the BNSF 9821?
it almost looks like a faded orange. also the numbers on the side are a cool font, way fancier than usual.

here's a pic:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 664&nseq=1

That is Burlington Northern's Dark Green & Cream "Executive" colors. BN used on their EMD comfort cab units assigned to coal service in the early 90s until the merger (as well as the BN business train), and shortly after the merger more were delivered in the same colors with BNSF lettering before BNSF had its own paint scheme. This is one of the post-merger units. This was the same time as the BNSF Warbonnets. The numbers are ATSF-style numbers.

Here are some more examples:
Original Burlington Northern Paint Scheme (numbers on long hood, BN herald on cab & nose)
Original BNSF Version (BNSF on long hood, ATSF-style numbers on cab, BN herald still on nose)
Early "Patched" Version
Late "Patched" Version

thanks for the info. i like them, its just weird seeing them cause they are so subdued compared to the eye-catching bright orange paint scheme.

There seem to be more of the ex-BN "executive" SD70MACs floating around than any merger-era ATSF power in the Warbonnet scheme, though. Probably has to do with that bad batch of paint that got applied to those ATSF units when they were built.

The Executive colors have certainly held up well. They don't seem to be as prone to fading as Warbonnet Red or BNSF Orange. As far as whether there are more Executives than Warbonnets left is hard to say. I don't think many of the Executives have been repainted into BNSF orange. BNSF seems content to "patch" them, and some now have the newest version of the logo applied. More Warbonnets have been repainted, but there were more Warbonnets (ATSF+BNSF) than Executives (BN+BNSF) to begin with. It may depend where you live. The SD70MACs, both Executive and Heritage II, tend to stay in the coal service they were purchased for, so if you have a lot of coal trains in your area you may see more of them. Warbonnets travel all over but I think they are more common in ATSF territory. Here in the Pacific Northwest where there aren't very many coal trains, both are relatively rare, but Warbonnets are probably more common.

There were a few units with experimental pain just after the merger. One was a 70 MAC in green and Cream with a warbonnet shaped division between the colors. There was also a GP39 (one rebuilt from a GP35) which was in BN cascade green, but with BNSF. That wasn't a patch job, but an experiment.

There were a few of those Cascade Green BNSFs. Here are a couple examples:
http://www.trainpix.com/BNSF/EMDRBLD/GP39E/2911.HTM
http://www.trainpix.com/BNSF/EMDRBLD/GP39E/2931.HTM
I also saw one once that had a large white block with rounded ends (like for the cab numbers in the pics) on the long hood with BNSF in it in green.

As I recall, BNSF wasn't originally going to have a unified image. The "Executive Warbonnet" SD70MAC was a symbolic one-off for promotional purposes and was never intended to be a new BNSF paint sheme. All the existing locomotives were going to get a BNSF version of the colors they already had. That was where the Cascade Green BNSFs came from. New power for the former ATSF would be BNSF warbonnets. New power for the BN coal trains would be BNSF executives. The original GN-inspired Heritage I Orange & Green was created for the new power for the rest of the BN territory. There was an SD60M painted in an experimental orange & green with different colors of stripes on each side to get opinions before they arrived. No older locomotives were supposed to be painted in the Heritage I, but this plan soon changed. GP38-2 #2099 was the first older locomotive to be repainted into Heritage I; I saw it on July 13, 1997. Unlike the later Heritage I repaints, it had the trucks and fuel tank in silver like the Dash 9s instead of green.