Heard Reading and Blue Mountain 425 is in the shop right now for a new paint job? And then (by pure coincidence) supposed to run a benefit special from Duryea/Pittston to Jim Thorpe on the 13th of September, which is the final day NKP 765 is running to Binghamton and the final day of the ARHS convention. Where does the R&N load in Duryea? Might be a cool thing to check out as I'll be in town for the 765 chase that weekend before heading to Altoona late Sunday evening.

Blue again?

I'm afraid so ... just darker this time. Saw a leaked photo of it, and I'm not impressed. Gaudy would be an understatement.

I happen to think it looks great! Then again, I had a Tyco Royal Blue pacific passenger set as a kid (the original one, all dark blue), so that could be part of the reason.

A lot of folks like the Southern Crescent scheme.
Most folks love the flashy Orange and Red Daylight
Everyone loved the Ferroequ.... (Oops, scratch that.)

What's wrong with a dark blue Pacific? Come on guys, they don't all have to be "can't photograph this since it's so shiny" black!

As long as they keep the headlight centered on the smokebox door, I can live with blue.


Les

Nothing is wrong with a little color, if it is executed well. PRR DGLE is very classy. The GN locomotives with the green boilers looked very attractive. Even the SR PS-4 looks good, because the various colors and lettering are balanced and work well together.

However, that HUGE logo on 425's tender just looks awful. That big logo, with the blue ending ABOVE the tender frame, is a mess. Even if they go to black drivers, trailing truck, and pilot, it just looks out of balance and not very pleasing aesthetically.

Could I see a link to the leaked photo? My search turned up no results. Originally it was painted blue so it would look like a Reading G-1 when they were painted in that scheme.

They should just stick a face on it and be done with it. Geez.

Why not just be thankful that there is steam restored to running condition- you know by a private individual, at his or his company's expense, even if it doesn't meet your tender aesthetic sensibilities.

Whiners! Never satisfied.

Did any of you call Port Clinton and offer to buy paint of a hue that you found more pleasing?

This.

It baffles me, when people have something to say about a PRIVATELY OWNED piece of restored equipment. So much equipment gets treated like this.

I work on a piece of large, historic RR equipment for a living. Our company adopted the paint scheme of its former owner, and we did our best to get it close. Guess what? Its a working piece of equipment, not a toy. We got so much flack when we painted it the first time its not even funny. But guess what, not a single bite when we offered to let anybody else do it..

Any well-maintained operable steam locomotive that regularly hauls passengers such that the public is reminded of the importance of steam-era railroading in our economic and social development is very aesthetically pleasing to me.

The value of an artifact is not just in what it is, but, sometimes even more so, in what it represents.

Reading and Blue Mountain painted blue because that is the name of the railroad ? Mktjames

The "Blue Mountain & Reading" name might still exist corporately on paper only for the Temple-Hamburg line, but the name "Reading & Northern" is what the larger freight railroad has been using for its business--including passenger excursions--for a good ten to twenty years now, after a short flirtation with "Reading, Blue Mountain & Northern".

Because last I heard, we live in the USA where we are entitled to form opinions on things offered for public view. Only in rail preservation do people get told to "just be thankful" or that if you didn't pay for it, that you should not have an opinion.

I guess none of you have never critiqued a sports team, restaurant, building, movie, or any other "thing" that you didn't pay to produce, but found not to your liking?

Yeah, I figured as much ...

To please all merely paint one side blue and the other black.Problem solved.