Fw: N&W Blue

[NW Mailing List]

This all may be true. But the two blues were and are different. I think
if you research the original  DuPont paint numbers from the drawings paint numbers from
the N&W align with the Wabash paint not the C&O. I have some of this info
but would take sometime to dig it all out.

Larry Evans
Kenova, WV


----- Original Message ----- 
From: NW Mailing List 
To: nw-modeling-list at nwhs.org ; nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org 
Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2011 6:58 PM
Subject: N&W Blue


While we have come to identify the transition to the blue paint scheme with the period of Herman Pevler's leadership, and hence have called it "Pevler Blue", with the implicit assumption that it came from the Wabash. I believe we give him too much credit.

When the C&O-B&O sought control of the Western Maryland in 1964, the N&W opposed the move and the lead N&W person was John Fishwick, then in N&W's law department. In "discussions" with C&O over the WM proposal, Mr. Fishwick proposed an alternative, that N&W and C&O-B&O combine (N&W would have been the surviving entity). The N&W-C&O merger discussions began in early 1965 and the parties were so certain of approval that they adopted a common blue paint scheme (and numbering system), blue being the Chessie color, which first appeared on new N&W diesels later in 1965. Alas, the Penn-Central disaster scuttled any further discussion of two strong coal roads combining and merger discussions ended. The blue scheme remained until Mr. Fishwick changed it back to black in 1971 after he became CEO.

So perhaps in truth we have a "Fishwick Blue" and a "Fishwick Black". ;) 

As a postscript, the Pevler years left N&W in very difficult financial straights, which Mr. Fishwick set about correcting when he became CEO.

Bill McClure



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