Hi, Scott -
You're right - that's VERY classy!
As someone old enough to remember
Southern Pacific's Coast Daylight in steam*, I'm not exactly thrilled with the
Big Nothing - Sani-Flush logos on the skirt and tender, but the striping adds a touch that the skirted but all-black GS-2s & -3s on the Shasta Division lacked in the 1940s and early '50s.
Of course, you have just underscored my point that just because a given paint scheme wasn't used prior to 1958 (any standard gauge steam) or 1968 (D&RGW narrow gauge) that it is NOT a crime to apply a non-historic paint scheme so long as it is done in the spirit of reasonable railroad practice. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I'm sure there were howls of protest from a few purists, but IMHO Doyle & crew created a thing of beauty. I have complete confidence in the ability of Carlos & company to create an equally beautiful K-36 - with a dark-green jacket and "bug" logo on the tender - honoring the spirit of D&RGW mainline passenger power of the 1930s.
- El Curmudgeono Viejo y Verde
* My family moved to Ventura County from L.A. County in 1950. We kids were taken to the beach frequently on summer weekends, almost always within sight of S.P.'s Coast Line. The passing of the southbound Daylight in the late afternoon was the signal that we were to 'come ashore' and prepare to head home ...