Scheme #4

Pictured here is a PA set on the front of the California Zephyr.  Once the California Zephyr (CZ) had been in service a few months it was suggested that the railroad that its PA diesels sets which were delivered new in paint scheme No. 3b be brought more nearly into line with the colors appearing on the locomotives of the other partner railroads (CB&Q and WP). Both of those roads made use of much more silver paint and stainless-steel side panels on their assigned CZ diesel sets. In late in the summer of 1949 both DRGW PA sets were repainted into silver with an orange around the nose of the paint scheme No. 4.
Often referred to as the “aspen leaf” scheme it was an impressive short-lived paint scheme, although it didn't wear well with both oxidation and tunnel soot along the DRGW portion of the CZ route. By 1952 the silver years were over and the PA set were repainted into scheme no.5

Also known as the Aspen Leaf scheme. Applied to the Alco PA and PB units by August 1949, following the inaugural run of the California Zephyr in March 1949. Both of the Alco passenger A-B-A sets were repainted to Aspen Gold, aluminum, and four black stripes in 1952 after one set was replaced on the Zephyr by passenger-equipped F3s (the other set remained on the CZ as late as 1958). The photo, with the latest documented date, of the aluminum-colored PA/PB units is one taken by Otto Perry on September 22, 1951 (Otto Perry DPL OP-10997), showing D&RGW 6011 in the earlier paint scheme, and one of the PB unit in the newer Aspen Gold with four black stripes Prospector scheme.

Aspen Gold was also used in late May or early June 1949 to paint D&RGW narrow gauge C-16 class 2-8-0 number 268, and its accompanying passenger cars for display from June to October 1949 during the second season of the Chicago Railroad Fair. (The display also included a half-size mock-up of the east portal of the Moffat Tunnel, and may have been the first use of the famous "Main Line Through the Rockies" logo.)

Scheme #6

The use of a single black, seven-inch stripe was first used on locomotives in 1961. The first units with this scheme, the A-B-B-A set of passenger F3s (D&RGW 5521, 5522, 5523, 5524) assigned to the California Zephyr, were completed in mid-April 1961. Alco PA passenger unit 6001 was also painted during April 1961. The only new units delivered with the Aspen Gold and aluminum with single black stripe were the Krauss-Maffei diesel hydraulic units, built in Germany in June 1961 and delivered to Rio Grande in November 1961.

According to Joseph Strapac in his "Rio Grande Diesels", Volume 1, page 109, only nine F7s (of 38 total units) did not receive the single stripe scheme, including D&RGW 5601, 5604, 5611, 5614, 5624, 5631, 5651, 5661, 5701.

Ed Fulcomer points out that the quantity is actually eight units. Mr. Fulcomer had taken two photos of D&RGW 5624 with the single stripe scheme in September 1966. One was used on page 97 of Mr. Strapac's Rio Grande Diesels, Volume 1 book, and another view showing D&RGW 5624 with the later single stripe scheme was used on page 39 of the Diesel Era article about D&RGW F units, in Diesel Era, Volume 10, Number 4, July/August 1999. (email from Ed Fulcomer, March 30, 2004)

Of the 36 F7 booster units (42 if you include the six very similar F5 booster units), photo research has found that all except the following 10 units received the single-stripe scheme: D&RGW 5602, 5603, 5612, 5613, 5623, 5632, 5633, 5652, 5683, 5692. (email from Ed Fulcomer, December 28, 2007)

For freight cars, as shown in the 1956 corporate annual report, a similar paint scheme without the black roof, was used on several 40-foot boxcars that were repainted in August 1956. This same 1956 annual report shows the first known use of the earlier four-stripe scheme on a caboose.

Also in August 1956, Rio Grande received 100 50-foot sliding single-door boxcars from ACF. These 100 cars carried D&RGW 64000-64099 reporting marks and numbers, and were the first examples of freight equipment delivered in the new single-stripe scheme. In 1957, Rio Grande leased from General American (GARX), 100 50-foot, plug-door RBL boxcars that were delivered in the new scheme, with GARX 50900-59999 reporting marks and numbers.

Many cabooses also received this new single-stripe scheme. The first D&RGW steel cabooses with the single black stripe scheme were the 11 cabooses in the 01480-01490 number series, built by D&RGW in their Burnham shops in July 1959. Fifteen wide-vision cabooses (01500-1514) were delivered in 1966, also in this single-stripe scheme.

(In later years, the caboose fleet concurrently carried a great variety of paint schemes, including the earliest all-black scheme, the all-black scheme with twin yellow stripes that denoted radio equipment, the Aspen Gold and aluminum with four black stripe scheme, the Aspen Gold and aluminum with single black stripe scheme, and the final (after 1975) all-orange scheme. This final all-orange scheme used an orange that was darker than Aspen Orange, but not as dark as the later Kansas City Orange.)

In the case of passenger cars, the first examples were likely the former Northern Pacific cars acquired in 1960, refurbished and repainted by D&RGW and placed in Ski Train service very soon after. These cars may have been the first passenger cars to receive the single black stripe scheme.

References
F3s, RG in Color, Vol. 1, p. 11 (Aug 1961)
50-foot boxcars, RG Equipment, p. 39

Scheme #7b & 7c

Beginning in 1968, on either new units or on most repainted units, the Rio Grande lettering was made larger, with the Rio made 24 inches high, and Grande made 60 inches high. This later scheme included a black rectangle on the nose of the unit, with a flying Rio Grande lettered in Aspen Gold on the black rectangle. (D&RGW 5333 was reversed, with black Rio Grande on an Aspen Gold background.)

A total of 24 units are known to have been repainted with large lettering, including: GP7 5103; five GP9s (5902, 5903, 5904, 5911, 5954); four GP30s (3001, 3002, 3014, 3027); GP35 3048; and 13 SD45s, including 5315, 5322, 5326, 5327, 5328, 5329, 5331, 5333, 5334, 5336, 5337, 5338, 5340.

D&RGW SD45s 5336 and 5337 were the first units completed with large lettering, in August 1968. Four other SD45s, D&RGW 5326, 5328, 5331, and 5338, were completed in February 1969 to support Rio Grande's new image for new unit coal trains from Carbondale and Somerset, Colorado, and from Sunnyside, Utah, to Kaiser Steel's steel plant at Fontana, California. SD45 5331 was completed with new image large lettering in June 1969. Steam generator car 252 received the new image in July 1969. SD45s 5329 and 5333 received large lettering after wreck repairs completed by EMD at LaGrange in September 1969. In October 1969, GP30s 3014 and 3027 received the new image after wreck repairs completed by EMD at LaGrange. All four units (3014, 3027, 5329, and 5333) had been wrecked on Christmas Day 1968 in Colorado. For unknown reasons, GP9s 5942 and 5943 did not receive large lettering after being wrecked in September 1969, repaired by EMD and returned in May 1970.

GP30 3002 received the new image following wreck repairs by D&RGW at Denver in November 1970, following a wreck in Colorado in September 1970. GP35 3048 received the new image following wreck repairs by EMD at LaGrange in June 1971, after a wreck in Colorado in September 1970.

The repainting of units stopped for over two years, beginning again in October 1974 with the completion of GP9 5902 in the early part of the month, and SD45 5315 in the late part, both with large lettering.

After the change to large lettering in 1968, all new units were received in the new image, beginning with 13 GP40s put into operation as D&RGW 3081-3093 in 1969 and 1971. In 1972, 1974, and 1983, all 37 GP40-2s, numbered as 3094-3130, were delivered with large lettering. The 73 SD40T-2s received in 1974 to 1980 had the new lettering, and the 23 former Conrail GP40s received in 1983, numbered as 3131-3153, also received large lettering as they were painted during 1984 and early 1985, albeit with a much darker orange color known as Kansas City Orange. The last two groups of new units delivered to D&RGW also came with large lettering, and included the 17 SD50s in 1984 and the three GP60s in 1990. These last two groups used the later shade of Aspen Gold, known as Anschutz Orange, which is just a bit deeper in color tone than the previous version, although not as dark as the former Conrail repaints.