Historic photo! Western Pacific Railroad EMD F-7 # 922 in the solid orange and black :Pumpkin" color scheme circa 1970's.

Over the course of time, many North American Railroads tried to find various ways of cost cutting and economizing in regards to the maintenance and up keep of their equipment.

For the first twenty years or so of dieselization, the regional west coast fallen flag railroad known as the western Pacific Railroad, utilized an elaborate orange and silver color scheme on their diesel locomotives. While being very striking, attractive and quite eye catching....in the long run it was difficult and expensive to maintain.

By the early 1970's, the Western Pacific Railroad began experimenting with solid color schemes. This orange and black color scheme was an early experiment. It wasn't long before the Western Pacific had standardized on a dark green with orange letters color schem. This was the last color scheme used by the Western Pacific until the merger and takeover by Union Pacific in 1982.