Rio Grande’s Denver roundhouse and shop complex at Burnham are gone now, demolished early in 2016 in the name of progress. But on an afternoon visit back in June, 1962, the photographer encountered Missouri Pacific E7A 14 just off the Colorado Eagle and laying over near the fuel racks. Meanwhile, the chair cars, sleepers and diner were being cleaned and restocked nearby in the coach yards. In an hour or so, engine and train 12 would be united and hauled down to Union Station for a 4:05 departure to Pueblo, Kansas City and St. Louis. The E7A, turned out by EMD in the late 1940s, still bears the original Cerulean blue, Icterine yellow and Isabelline gray scheme created for the MoP by famed industrial designer Raymond Loewy, who was also responsible for the engine’s winged emblem and round portholes. Other road’s E7s had rectangular windows.
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.