JeffShultz said:
I like the black on the top & bottom of RCH's design as well. Frames the colors nicely.
Thanks for the positive comments, folks. As someone who has painted the majority of my locomotive fleet, I tend to prefer simplicity in design. With that said, there are some elements of Empire Builder's design that I like very much, such as the stand-alone flag on the short hood. Very nice touch.
Jeff, I basically ripped the idea for the scheme from our local commuter line, as seen here:
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/misc-t/tre567akr.jpg
Mine's just a simpler version of that design. The black roof is practically a necessity after seeing what the locomotives do to the first following car's roof (I drive over the tracks every day on my way home from work). I can only imagine how dirty the locomotive's roof would be if it weren't dark blue. The photos I saw of the new Albuquerque Rail Runner show how bad an idea it is to have a white roof, and they've only been in service a very short time.
Anyway, I agree with Empire Builder: there's more than one locomotive in Zak's fleet, so the possibility to paint them in different schemes is certainly there. It would be neat to see the fleet in a "unified" variety of schemes.