I wonder why SAL 2028 was repainted in the freight scheme instead of the mint green and red passenger paint. ???

-- Jim Roquemore (roque@camden.net), December 15, 1999

Answers

Bud: You may be entirely correct. OR- maybe someone upstairs realized that the "mint white" was a bummer. Thanks for your response.

-- Jim Roquemore (roque@camden.net), June 11, 2001.

Jim: Here's just a thought. A motor-car or most any kind of secondary-line sort of equipment is probably going to get even less TLC than a mint- white passenger locomotive because it's going to be spending its time out in Bumflop, Florida, about 2000 miles from a washrack. Maybe that was the line of thinking of the "powers that be" on the SAL. I would like to have seen one of those things clopping along through South and Middle Georgia before the SAL pulled the plug on Savannah- Montgomery passenger service in '58. Alas, I was nothing more than a sexy thought at the time (I was born in '62). Oh, one other thing-about the Chevy-I just got a Toyota 4x4 pickup and guess what color it's in? Pullman green, my all-time favorite loco color. I always thought the SAL and early 60s CofG Losing Money scheme were the coolest. Somehow, I don't have the heart (of the South) to run a yellow, orange-striped band or dual yellow stripes down the side, though..... Bud Leggett

-- David L. (Bud) Leggett (leggettd@dartnet.peachnet.edu), June 11, 2001.

Don't know why either.I do know it was painted at least once at Tampa in that scheme.Funny,because Tampa painted a BLH baby face in mint green and red. (Sidebar) Back in 1955 I had a brown and off white '55 Chevy.I hated the brown (it was not very cool).I had a minor accident and along with the repairs I had the nose shaved(remember those days?)and other goodies such as fender skirts,etc.I wanted to be a "cat".I was making big bucks at the railroad and had a car to show off.Anyhow,one of the painters was a little sort,called "Pee Wee" that liked the bottle. One Saturday,I slipped him a few bucks and a drink and he painted over that old ugly brown with the most beautiful laquer orange-red that matched the stripes on the freight locomotives.Boy,did that Chevy ever look good now!Iloved that car then,especially the girls that it caught!Yes,I still have pictures of it.

-- J Oates (jlosal@mindspring.com), March 23, 2001.

One possibility is that SAL (at least at times) considerd the 2028 a part-passenger car. The unit had baggage and RPO sections, and along with the other railcars, was listed with other passenger equipment in the Official Register of Passenger Train Equipment and in SAL's Condensed Rostes of Equipment. It's true of course that both the citrus colors and the last "freight" paint scheme were copies of diesel schemes. But maybe SAL decided the 2028's last scheme, the solid Pullman green-based one, was more appropriate for a "semi" passenger car than the light mint green scheme used on E units - since SAL's heavyweight passenger cars were Pullman green with a smaller version of the "SEABOARD" road name lettering.

-- Larry Goolsby (LGoolsby@aphsa.org), March 23, 2001.

That question has bugged me for years. There just does not appear to be a logical reason for the freight scheme used on 2028, other than they just painted it that way. Originally both 2027 and 2028 were painted solid Pullman green, with delux lettering. Both were eventually repainted into the "Citrus Scheme" on the forties. With only the 2028 surviving into the late fifties, it being a single example of a railcar may have infuenced the decision. Just wish I knew a logical answer to that one too.

-- Warren Calloway (callowayw@aol.com), March 23, 2001.

Harry , I was asking about SAL "doodle bug" 2028, which pulled the Meteor in the Citrus scheme and was repainted into the freight scheme although it was a passenger engine and would have logically been done in the mint green paint. My reference is Calloway and Withers pp.225 and 226. Thanks for responding to my strange question. Jim Roquemore

-- Jim Roquemore (roque@camden.net), December 20, 1999.

Could you possibly have reference to SAL engine 3028 or 4028 ?

-- Harry Bundy (y6b@aol.com), December 20, 1999.