I don't know anything about this, other than it was a very recent restoration, but DANG does it look good!


2 more pictures here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IlliniRail/photos/album/1805920910/pic/list

Jeff

It is a fake, Photoshopped. The perps admitted it on Trainorders.

Rob

Sorry Robert, I beg to differ. The unit in question is former Detroit Edison U30C #011, which was moved to Grandview, MO to be scrapped. Two ambitious volunteers spent their own time and money to do a quick cosmetic restoration of the unit into Burlington colors AND correct details and then do a photo shoot before it was scrapped. There was extensive discussion on Trainorders and while many thought it was a photoshop hoax, the restorers supplied multiple pictures of the unit in various stages of restoration, day and night photos from the photo shoot, and close-ups of how various details such as the axle alternators were replicated to match the Burlington prototype. All the critics and skeptics appeared to be convinced, and at least one third-party eyewitness to the subsequent scrapping corroborated the fact that DE #011 was scrapped in Burlington Chinese Red. It's an amazing story of a labor of love by a few Burlington fans who didn't care that it was only temporary.

Links to the TRAINORDERS discussions and extensive photos:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/r ... 525,page=1

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/r ... ?1,1910484

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/r ... ?1,1909872

All righty then.

This absolutely kills me. I've returned to this page maybe five times today hoping to read that it still survives and was let down to find out that a museum quality restoration was performed on a locomotive going to scrap. Couldn't the money spent on paint alone go toward purchasing the unit? I guess if you're going to go out, you may as well do so dressed in your best.

The question that comes to my mind is, with so many Museums in financial trouble, and so many worthy projects needing funding and labor, is why?

> The question that comes to my mind is, with so many
> Museums in financial trouble, and so many worthy projects
> needing funding and labor, is why?

Yes, that was my thought as well. However, I think I may have a good idea why.

1) This would not qualify as museum quality restoration. Maybe the attention to details and the research they did would, but the actual work would not. It was not intended to withstand the test of time, nor did it need to.

2) The cost isn't nearly what it may appear. They said they spent less than $1,000 on the whole thing. They approached it like a movie studio would, not a restoration project. Parts made out of old beer cans (Literally! the antenna was a broom stick and beer can) and latex paint. They showed a shot with primer. but I get the idea they did very little prep work. The paint job wouldn't last long. So what, when the scapping deadline is next month, you don't worry about sandblasting and using Imron... Oh, and one more thing. They apparently painted HALF a locomotive. Yep, the other side doesn't look nearly as nice. :)

3) This is obviously something they were passionate about. For whatever reason, they wanted this engine. You couldn't simply tell them "Well no, we don't have a U30C you can paint in those colors but we do have an old coach that needs painted Pullman green." This was, apparently, a labor of love.

4) I immediately wondered if somebody, somewhere, didn't have a loco they could do this too. Then I realized this was all about location, location, location. This engine was apparently close by, so they could work on it. Having another engine, even one suitable for the project, in a dfferent part of the country, wouldn't have worked.

So, what's the bottom line? Some guys got together, put in a lot of time and spent $1,000 or so to have some short lived fun. Silly? No, not really. How many guys spend that much, or more, sometimes far more, to go hunting or fishing, or gambling, or to build a dune buggy, or even to go golfing at a fancy course. So they had some fun and blew some money... Happens all the time, good for them!

That said, I do think the closest railroad museum should give them a call... :)

Read the rest of the story on the trainorders.com links above.

They used latex paint because they weren't going to use the "$100/gal museum stuff" on a temporary job like this. Also cleanup. This echoes the earlier paint discussions on this forum, i.e. using a quality of paint appropriate for the job.

It does raise an interesting question. What would happen if you went to a local working railroad and said "hey, free paint job if you let use a historic scheme!"

If your local line is is part of the North Shore "empire" in central Pennsylvania, you don't do anything--you just sit back while the railfan-run railroad paints the locos in amazingly accurate adaptations of their "heritage" schemes, as it has with at least some of its locos since it got some EMD SW's to start replacing its original trio of ex-ATSF CF7s back in the 1980s......



It's almost like 1976 all over again, isn't it?

I apologize to the everyone here for the false alarm about the U30C's "restoration".

As for railfan railroaders painting loco's up in historical paint jobs, it happens in Chicagoland too, as seen here: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1533676

Jeff

And a very famous example in the Chicago area. Back when the railroads were painting locomotives (and other equipment) into special red/white/blue paint schemes for the BiCentennial celebration, the Rock Island said sorry, but they didn't have the money to paint one of their units. A local railfan group volunteered to do it and the Rock Island agreed to let them. I won't go into all the details here, but eventually CRI&P E8 #652 was painted in a railroad approved paint scheme with the words "Independence" on the EMD's sides. This story has a very happy ending. Although most of the Rock's E units ended up as junk, the 652 was privately purchased and today the locomotive resides on the Iowa Northern where it is eventually going to be restored to active service.

Les