Wearing the classic blue and gray Eagle passenger scheme, Missouri Pacific GP7’s 186 and 221 hustle a local freight east towards Herrington on the Kansas City-Pueblo main line, MP’s westernmost extension. On this fine October afternoon in 1965 there is no clue that this will ever be anything less than a busy, working railroad. But in 1982, the MP swill be swallowed up by the all-devouring Union Pacific. Six years later, UP will go on to gobble up the Rio Grande (which has already acquired Southern Pacific) and abandon Tennessee Pass west of Pueblo, leaving traffic on the former MP nowhere to go. Soon thereafter UP will start breaking up the Kansas line piecemeal. Missouri Pacific bought more GP7’s – 272 – than any other locomotive model, but none will survive to wear UP’ armour yellow.
Not
just heritage schemes, not just commemorative schemes - this album is devoted to some of the world's most interesting paint schemes, past or present.