The 1218 wore two different paint schemes during its life on the Southern Pacific.  As delivered, it was adorned in what fans call "Tiger Stripe" livery and wore the number 1051.  In 1959, the SP gave up on orange and black paint and instituted the scarlet and gray scheme, commonly called "Bloody Nose".  It took years in some cases for locomotives to be repainted and some never were before sale, donation or scrapping.  In 1965, the Southern Pacific renumbered all of its locomotive fleet and the 1051 became the 1218.  So, our S6 was SP 1051 in Tiger Stripe, and SP 1218 in Bloody Nose.  In between, it was likely renumbered to 1218 while still in Black and Orange.  We are still looking for photos to confirm that.

The SP also used an interim scheme on some switchers called "Halloween" which was close to Tiger Stripe but without the diagonal black stripes.  We have no evidence that our locomotive was painted that way but the center photo illustrates the scheme.

We have decided to repaint the locomotive as the 1218 in the Bloody Nose scheme because it spent more of its life that way and because that paint represents the SP to so many of us.

Mike Myers Collection

Pittsburg, Ca. February, 1969 *Bob Zenk Photo

Taylor Yard, L.A. April, 1968 *Alan Miller

-- Updates To Come --