Detroit and Mackinac Diesel Paint Schemes

[GP30M4216]

Breaking out an interesting topic from the New LSRC paint scheme thread:viewtopic.php?f=3&t=28840 is that of the various paint schemes applied to Detroit and Mackinac diesels over the nearly 50 years the road operated them. Near as I can tell, five basic "standard" paint schemes existed, with a few various individual modifications or "one-offs" (the years in parenthesis indicate the era the scheme was applied as current, some units carried older schemes for years if not decades beyond their "era"):

Original Gray and Maroon (1946-early 1960s?) The original RS2 standard scheme applied to 466-4610. I don't know if 481 received this or not?



Simplified Gray and Maroon (Early 1960s-1974) Original RS2 fleet received this scheme, plus 481, S1 646 and #10 the 44-tonner.


Deep green ("Turtle" Scheme, also referred to as "football" scheme) (1974-early 1980s) Applied to all RS-class units acquired in the 1970s (974, 975, 977, 1077) plus 469. C420 976 received a variation.


Green and Gold (Late 80s-1992) Replacement for the Turtle scheme for the non-C425M's. Only 469 and 975 received these colors.


C425M Green and Gold (1980-1992) Same colors as Green and Gold, but with a gold side stripe on the long hood with "Detroit & Mackinac" spelled out. Only applied to the fleet's four C425M's.


Also: Bi-centennial 1976 scheme (976)


646 with front end stripes (date unknown......this unit survived in the simplified maroon and gray into the LSRC era before being sold off, so maybe this was an early scheme?) 646 was the first diesel acquired by the D&M, shortly before the RS2 fleet arrived.


I suppose the point of this thread is to discuss the different units which carried them, the nuances between the schemes, ask questions, and of course post photos if you have them! Especially photos of units in the older schemes, but I suppose by this point even late era D&M photos are over 20 years out so anything is fair game. Where's Mackinac Mac? This thread would be right up his alley.

[Saturnalia]

The D&M numbered their units by acquisition date, correct? If so, what is up with the 4610?

[GP30M4216]

Acquired in October (10) 1946. Kinda strange as it doesn't really fit in the sequence.... you'd think they're just move them all up one so it would start with 465 instead of 466. C425M 1280 is similar, acquired Dec. 1980.

[JStryker722]

At least using the date they were acquired makes sense instead of using no reason and rhythm at all.

[SD80MAC]

How does it not make sense? 469 September of 46, 4610, October of 46.

[AARR]

To add to the confusion the numbers on the engines do not exactly match when the engines arrived. Some if not all arrived before or after the numbers would indicate. In addition they did not necessarily arrive in the order they are numbered.

[GP30M4216]

It's also confusing because they switched, at least twice, from year-month to month-year:
646 (1946)
466 (1946)
467 (1946)
468 (1946)
469 (1946)
4610 (1946)
481 (1948)
974 (1974)
975 (1975)
976 (1976)
977 (1977)
1077 (1977)
1280 (1980)
181 (1981)
281 (1981)
381 (1981)
Note: for this list, numbers are based on their road numbering scheme, not on their actual date of order or delivery.

[SD80MAC]

For the first few years, LSRC also continued this practice with RS11 1195 and M420W's 698 and 798. I believe those were the last three units to be numbered that way, as the rest of the former CN MLWs seemed to keep their CN numbers.