Don't know if anyone has posted this before:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=234043

Verdict? Like it? Don't like it?

Les

Nothing wrong with a little color!
Bill

It is classiclaly understated in broad design, while making a nice, forceful impression through the boldness of the red and the font.

What's not to like about it?

dave

not bad, and not jus another black steamer. is it gettin to run any?
thanks for sharing.

Thin out the stripe on the loco, wipe out the stripe on the tender entirely but keep the logo ONLY on the tender and then you have an even better looking engine.
Next all they need to do is run the thing...

Anyone else think that this scheme looks like AFT-1?

Continue the skyline casing back to the cab and paint it in Daylight colors...

THIS, is what vinyl lettering gets you, god awful condensed lettering that visually fights with the length of the engine. It looks like something a model railroader would come up with, using MS Word to make his decals. Where have all the graphic designers gone... gone to graveyards every one...

If good ol' RJ needed that much lettering, he should have bought a billboard.

At least a good American engine wasn't desecrated.

The graphic designers have not gone anywhere, but like a lot of other folks with a computer, the person that did this thought they didn't need one. But hey, in a world of "good enough" and "git'r dun," what are we to expect? The artful work of a Dreyfus or a Lowey?

The basic scheme is almost okay, it does a decent job of transforming the appearance of the engine with an economic intervention. It also addresses the visual problem created by those tiny drives by covering some of that left over area between the running boards and the running gear.

The lettering is terrible. I would also suggest that the angled corners on the skirting would look more streamlined if the corners were eased with little curves, instead of having sharp corners. Okay, one last comment, the red could use to be a little darker so that it does not create such a jarring contrast with the black.

Sorry, I think I just had one of those opinions-on-the-internets moments.

Only two objections: the red pilot and driving wheels and the numbers on the cab are too large.

I agree with the smaller numbers on the cab, and get rid of the "Central Kentucky Lines" and I think it would like even nicer. But let us not forget that it is an operational steam locomotive... I won't complain!

Kind of has that NC&St.L "stripe" feel to it. I agree with the size and style font. Something like the Northern Pacific round logo, the WM Ritter logging Co logo, or even the old Buffalo Creek and Gauley diamond might have looked sharper. But, I guess whoever pays for the paint, owns the engines, or both can paint it how they want.

It is operating steam though.

MarkP

Any of you guys remember a Volkswagon ad from 1969, just after the first lunar landing? Showed a photo of the LEM with the caption, "It's ugly, but it gets you there."

I think the paint scheme is ugly, but steam is steam. I also agree with the comment about streamlining - a good idea! Painting it in Daylight colors - a bad idea. Getting rid of the red and going with some modest blue and yellow might have enhanced the appearance.

It's ugly, but it gets me there.

Okay, I wish I knew better than to comment on this. There are few things worse than being just another guy on the internet with an opinion, but it drives me crazy when I hear folks downplay the significance of good design. The VW Beetle previously referenced is widely considered a classic of economical design. The "oil drum on a skateboard" Thomas is successful because it looks exactly like the T.V. Thomas down to the moving eyes.

R.J. Corman has spent many thousands of dollars to purchase and ship this locomotive to the U.S. and they will spend many thousands more to operate it. It appears that their primary motivation is to generate positive relations with their shippers and the public, but they are not going to spend what would probably be less than $2k for a professional designer's time? The could probably have gotten a graphic designer to do the lettering design for less than $500. Now I have said that it is not too bad looking of a design scheme, and I think it solves some of the aesthetic problems that those engines have, but with all of this effort, doesn't it make sense to go just a little further with the design?

I have heard many hard-core steam fans express the opinion that they don't care what it looks like, as long as its steam, but why not take it all the way, and do it right? When SP 4449 was painted black for the BNSF, they came up with a scheme that was tasteful. The Chessie Steam Special and AFT schemes were clearly designed by professionals. The best design is almost always going to be the one that was historically authentic, but when people feel compelled to come up with something new, they should get help from someone who knows what they are doing.

So fine, yes, too much opinion + bandwidth = useless rant.

Painting it in Daylight colors or yellows or blues as has been suggested might be preferable to "us", personally I like the ole' Lackawanna maroon, gray and yellow colors; but the red used on the QJ is not from the red that the locomotive was built with but rather is the very color with which the RJCorman company paints all of its equipment. It is RJ Corman red and therefore is the appropriate color for a steamer owned by RJ Corman.