Happy Fourth of July!

As we celebrate our Nation's signing of the declaration of independence on July 4, 1976, I thought I would post two of my favorite images of Delaware and Hudson #1976 and Boston and Maine bicentennial RS3m #1976 decorated engines.

D&H #1976 (9-25-1976)

The first is peculiar in that there is a Rock Island F-unit behind it, so I wonder if this was taken as part of the gathering of Bicentennial painted engines that was sponsored by Trains magazine. They had an interesting article about it in the March 2005 issue (titled the "That 70's Issue").
#1976, (formerly 506, and before that RS3 #4112), kept this paint throughout its career with the D&H. It later was sold to the Tioga Central Railroad, then the Wellsboro & Corning Railroad, and finally the Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad in 2014. The WNY&P repainted her solid black with yellow chevrons in October 2014. Sadly, I didn't have the foresight to take pictures of it when it was on the Tioga Central.

This engine wasn't the D&H's first red, white, and blue engine. The railroad also provided GE U23B #2312 for the 1974 "Preamble Express" (more info here). It would further go through two other paint schemes (solid blue, and blue with yellow nose). There was also GE U23B #1776 (formerly #314) which as far as I know retained its colors through its end on the D&H.

B&M #200 (undated slide)

The second engine of interest to me is Boston and Maine Railroad GP38-2 #200. While the D&H engine was simple and classy, the B&M engine looked like they tried to wrap the entire engine with an American flag! Painting and maintenance of the engine must have been a nightmare, and the broad white bands on the side probably got dirty quick. It was delivered in solid blue (#212) but was painted in this scheme and renumbered in March 1975. It looked brand new in April of 1976 (or perhaps they repainted it). The scheme lasted through the fall of 1979, but by the end of the year it was repainted into their blue scheme with vertical white stripes on the front of the nose. (More online pictures here).

Here is another interesting link showing Andy Fletcher's artwork of bicentennial engines. My favorite on the list is probably Conrail GG1 #4800.