Once again, I have reached a level of indecisiveness, and so I figure I'll try and break the tie with a poll.

Essentially, I wanted to model the E8s that would be Pulling commuter trains around New Jersey during 1979, but there are several choices.

Conrail of course had it's share of tired E8s in various predecessor schemes (PC, EL), and even had two blue ones. On December 2, 1976, 19 E8s were transferred over to NJ DOT, and received a "Bluebird" paint scheme similar to the U34CH locomotives of the time period.

None of these paint schemes (except some EL ones) are available. Even if they were, Most E8 models in HO have portholes, which would need to be filled in, negating any factory paint job. I will have to paint myself a few units!

So, Which ones should I paint? Below are photos. Only going to do one now, but these usually ran in pairs, so I'll leave the option to pick 2.

NJ DOT- Blue and Silver with red pinstripes



NJ DOT #2- Similar to the first, but with a "straight" nose stripe



Conrail- Penn Central Patch- Dirty black with patches, if any.



Conrail 4014- Erie lackawanna Patch Job



Conrail 4022- Former Erie, Only E8 in full Conrail colors. First Office Car Special E8



Conrail 4256- Former PRR E8, Blue with CR patches only

NJ DOT- Blue and Silver with red pinstripes



No contest!
Mark

4253 and 4014 are my favorites.

I went with 4014, but I'm not really crazy about any of em'.

Engine 4253 - blue and silver with red striping. Elegant, classy but still subdued, and the trace of red will help cover up the rust spots!

Betcha thought I'd choose the black patched PC unit! I like the blue with the simple CR patch job.
Ralph

Ralph do you know what the nickname is for the logo in your avatar?

Tyson Rayles Wrote:Ralph do you know what the nickname is for the logo in your avatar?

Isn't it about twisted worms or something?

"Mating Worms".. Sexy, huh?

I like any of the ones with long stripes on the sides.

In order of appeal to me:

4014 - a classy paint scheme which looked good on EL units and on DL&W ones before that.

4328 - an awful lot of history hidden under that black dip job, and even more reflected in the dirt and unkempt appearance.

4022 - business-like and a more-or-less complete paint job - like a fresh start.

4253 - a little minimalistic for my tastes, but at least they got the EMD "bow wave" right.

4256 - this one would have been passable, but the shade of blue (it could be the photo) makes it look "not right".

4272 - shouldn't even have been on the list - the paint job was designed by someone with an eye on the budget, but no inkling of railroad history.


Wayne

I like wayne's reasoning, esp. on 4328. If you could accurately re-create that look on a model - that would be very unique.

I voted for the 1st option NJ DOT 1, and the Penn Central patch over .

The 1st one for the 'classyness', be it somewhat simplistic, but the lines are just right as mentioned here earlier.
I also like the Penn Central dirty weathered patch job, only if recreated, it would indeed tell a story and would be a great thing to do.
So your challenge is (since you have two) do both, and show us the pics!

Koos

Oh wow, thanks for the responses guys!

I might lean towards 4014 now... though I too would perfer to do the NJ DOT unit.

Unfortuneately, I just realized that those NJ DOT units might be beyond my capability. They were rebuilt by the Paducah shops not long after NJ DOT acquired them. During this process, they removed the front door, and replaced the "paneling" with plane sheet metal. Though I already knew I would have to fill in and sand down the port holes, I hadn't realized that i'd also need to remove all the panel strips as well.

I'm not sure if there is a safe way to do this on the model without being very VERY careful. It seems like it could be a difficult proposition to scrape all of that off and then polish it. Its certainly one of those things that, Once you begin, you can't turn back!

On one hand, you have to take risks and just go for things if you want to learn. On the other hand, There are plenty of safer alternatives. Decisions!

I'll have to think about it. I kinda wish i had a practice shell or something, but that still doesn't guarantee success on the actual E-unit.

Tyson Rayles Wrote:I went with 4014, but I'm not really crazy about any of em'.

In the case of the E8s, 1979 is a bad year to "cut off" the date. During late 1979, NJ Transit (which now existed but would not run trains directly until 1983) purchased E8s from the Southern Railway. About this time, the first "true" NJ transit paint schemes started appearing on the E8s. They first tried white with the orange\magenta\blue bands, and when that didn't work, they switched to Platinum mist with a black roof line. They may not be any better, but they're just beyond the time period I model (I chose 1979 since its the last possible year for GG1s to haul freight).

These were in October 1980.





1987, though this paint scheme was applied much earlier. Some of the Southern units kept their paint.

We only picked 4253 to watch you try to paint those nose stripes!