TSW2 Repaint CSX Vintagelackierung-Pack für Sand Patch Grade

(Vollständiger Artikel auf Englisch unten)

Dieses Pack stellt alle 7 Lackierungen dar, die CSX vor der Einführung von YN2 verwendet hat.

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When CSX Transportation began operations as a railroad in 1986, it inherited a vast fleet of locomotives (and other rolling stock) in the colors not only of merged parents Chessie and Seaboard (CSX stands for Chessie-Seaboard Multiplied), but more than a few still in the paintjobs of their old railroads, Western Maryland, Louisville & Nashville, RF&P and on and on-- a really polychrome collection of traction. Freight locomotives don't get repainted in a hurry, or at the stroke of a pen; generally it's only at the time of a major overhaul, and it can be years between those.

CSX of course wanted its own livery, but it took them rather a lot of attempts. The initial livery from May 1986 was in gray with blue trim, blazoned with the new company's full name "CSX Transportation." This first pass (dubbed by trainspotters "CSX-t") was not a winner: only eleven locos were ever painted in it, but one of them was SD-40 No. 8310 (in the Pack, the cab numbers are those of engines which actually wore the livery in question)

In the RW logo, "Transportation" was in a block-serif typeface to match "CSX", but it would have taken 50-odd layers and I didn't have the headroom for it).

By August, this logo had already been rejected, and 178 new orders and overhauled engines, roughly half of them SD40s and SD40-2s, received a version which just said "CSX", suitably larger. Since the distinctive remaining feature was the band around the base of the body, it picked up the nickname "blue stripe" or simply "stripe" (CSX-s).

"Stripe" was applied for over a year, until fall 1987, but then it was simplified: rather than masking off the bottom of the blue band, they simply painted everything blue right down to the ground, fuel tanks, trucks and all. "Blue Down" (CSX-b or -bd) also lasted only about a year, until October 1988, but a whopping 502 locomotives got it. Unfortunately, I couldn't reproduce this striking livery because Livery Designer won't let you paint anything below the frame. However, during the Blue Down era CSX elected to promote the union initiative Operation Redblock (a campaign to prevent drinking and drug use on the job) by painting 19 engines, one in each division, in a special ORB paint job. SD40 no. 8428 was one of them:

(At least I could paint the frame rails blue!)

However, even Blue Down was apparently too complex or time-consuming (CSX had literally thousands of locomotives still in outdated liveries), so now in October '88 the decision was made that repaints and new orders would be in plain gray with no blue at all save the CSX markings. CSX-g (called "Gray Ghost" or "Stealth") was the livery in effect when a very large number of SD40s received their Dash-2 upgrades, and so emerged from the shop wearing it.

As the story goes, though, "Stealth" started generating complaints regarding visibility. I don't know the truth of the matter, but it's certainly the case that after only ten months (but 563 gray locomotives), CSX deployed a new color: yellow. "Yellow Nose" (CSX-yn1) returned to the blue roof and upper cab of earlier liveries, but also added bright yellow hood ends and frame rails. Over 100 newly-upgraded SD40-2s emerged from the shops in yn-1; in fact the prototype for the livery was No. 8420, which also, uniquely, got spiffy yellow handrails too:

The idea that there was some sort of pressure regarding visibility - or at least to have something like a uniform fleet appearance - is reflected by the fact that during the yn1 period 1989-90 a very large number, perhaps the majority, of locomotives in CSX-s, -bd and -g, not due for repainting, nonetheless got quickie yellow nose jobs. There was little uniformity in the dimensions of the yellow panels, none with regard to whether the frame rails were also painted or not, and in some cases the CSX logos on one or both ends were not reapplied over the yellow. In a few cases it was just masked off and the yellow painted around it!

The pack includes two examples, in CSX-ys and -yg:

But finally, in 1990, CSX found the livery they would stick with for over a decade: officially "Bright Future" but often dubbed "Blue Cab," "Hockey Stick" or "Yellow Nose 2" (CSX-yn2), it would become the line's signature, right down to the present even though yn2 in turn gave way to yn3 in 2002, almost two decades ago- yet as of this writing, almost a quarter of CSX locos are still in yn2- not to mention a number still in Conrail light blue.

All of these earlier liveries were applied over just a five-year period over 30 years ago, nonetheless they hung around for a long time. Yellow-nosed Stripes, Blue Downs and Stealths could still be seen hauling CSX freight as recently as 2010, although I believe they are all gone now, either scrapped or redone in yn3. So there is an element of anachronism about using the Pack in Sand Patch. There are some smaller ones, as well- the two rare liveries (-t and -rb) were actually only ever applied to SD40s, not SD40-2s. And, unfortunately, the model which Livery Editor uses is the game's yn3b model, not the yn2, and there are some obvious late features, such as the a/c units on the cab roof and the horn relocated to the long hood, which don't really fit the liveries. Actually, most of these locos didn't have ditch lights in the 80s, and in many cases had "cyclops" headlights above the windscreen, not on the front of the short hood.

But at a distance, if you squint a little, the simulacrum isn't too bad (better than most movie "Tiger tanks"!!). Install some or all of these using Livery Manager, and let Cumberland Yard's inventory surprise you every time!