Nostalgia & History > Leland Knickerbocker' Legacy - and simplification thereof.....

In 1937, Santa Fe premiered their streamlined "Super Chief" - the joint brainchild of Chicago industrial designer Sterling McDonald (1901-?), working with the Budd Company, who partnered with Electro-Motive Corporation (EMC) color stylist Leland Knickerbocker (1893-1939). It was McDonald who developed Santa Fe's Southwest Indian theme, and Knickerbocker who conceived the classic "Warbonnet" red and silver livery.

Literally, at that very moment - as Knickerbocker applied his tempura paint medium to his panel - any thought of the design he was creating surely did not include the variable of iconicity.

Yet, that is exactly what transpired. In his wistfully foreshortened life, his creation left us with perhaps the most well known trademark employed by any American business or industry in the history of the country.

Even when the Santa Fe segued away from the colors of red and silver in the '70's, the idea of the "warbonnet" lived on - substituting yellow for crimson in the 1972 debut of the "Yellowbonnet" paint scheme. More than a decade later, in 1989, an idea brought to fruition by CEO Michael Haverty, provided a new generation with the opportunity to witness the symbolic aesthetic that succinctly conveyed the genius of Knickerbocker.

To be sure, however, there was a single instance, that the simplification of his acclaimed color design was actually implemented on ten new locomotives. It came in the form of a newly created model, of which the Santa Fe was the sole purchaser of same. General Electric advertised that they could insert a steam generator on board the platform of their freight unit model dubbed the U28C. The addition of this train heating appliance and systems garnered a revision to the model' designation, by simply adding a "G" to the end of the freight model - the "G" standing for (steam) "Generator". They were adorned with red and silver, but missing was the yellow and black separating stripes between the colors. There was a broad yellow stripe on the nose, with a Santa Fe "Cigar Band" logo bisecting it, and black was utilized on the running gear and fuel tanks. The ten units were delivered in numbers that were numbered above the highest number passenger "F" units - as their 350-359.

After a spate of grade crossing accidents, it was decided to repaint the black running gear and tanks with aluminum, as well as repainting the red pilot faces.

This lasted until all of the units, having lost their passenger hauling credentials, would finally trade the red and silver colors for either the blue and yellow "book end" scheme, or, after August, 1972, the (aforementioned) "Yellowbonnet" scheme. The arrangement of the yellow, blue, and black of the latter scheme was wholly copied from the original scheme that the U28CG's were delivered in.

I wish to thank an anonymous photographer and Al Chione, for providing us with the following photographic evidence, of a rare and short lived derivation from Mr. Knickerbocker' creative genius.

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out

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Sweet image! A multitude of thanks for sharing. Fortunately I was able to shoot every single one of Santa Fe's unique U28-CGs!
UN-fortunately, they all had '79' in place of the 3, and they were all wearing blue & yellow...  :^/

Lance

To me it was the epitome of ugly.

tomstp Wrote:
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> To me it was the epitome of ugly.


AMEN!
ALLEN

Mr. Knickerbocker was a hell of a stylist and industrial designer.  Another enduring creation he was involved in was the styling of the classic EA locomotive, for which he was awarded a design patent alongside his co-developers Harold L. Hamilton, Richard M. Dilworth, Martin P. Blomberg and Chris J. Klein.

Cool photo!

Z

The really unfortunate thing about the U28CG's is that they gave license for any two-bit toy train maker to slap a red and silver warbonnet on any old hood unit - GP20's, high hood GP50's, high hood C630's fer cryin' out loud.  Not that the GE's were the least graceful prototype adaptation of the warbonnet...that prize must surely go to doodlebug M.190, or possibly the simplified "non-bonnet" RDC's...which I suppose served to justify this small-scale nonsense: 

http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/pcm/pcm441.htm
http://americasbesttrain.com/shop/images/6-19367_6412.jpg

It's interesting to note that Santa Fe had had plenty of boiler-equipped roadswitchers that pulled passenger trains before the U28CG's appeared, and those units had all worn freight colors - the lone RS-2 #2099, assorted GP7's, RSD-5's, and the ex-demonstrator RSD-7's (we'll ignore the RS-1's and H12-44TS's since Santa Fe considered them to be switchers and as far as I know they never powered a revenue train over the road).  I suppose we should thank our lucky stars that nobody has fielded a red and silver warbonnet RS-2...yet...that I know of...

Given the history of freight-painted, boiler equipped roadswitchers on Santa Fe, it's interesting that they decided to paint the U28's in red and silver warbonnet at all.  With the state of the passenger train business in 1966, and planning for the Super C already underway, the railroad surely must have anticipated that the units would spend some time pulling freight.  After all, the 20 F45's that had through steam lines and ATS equipment were painted in freight colors.

Evan_Werkema Wrote: > ... it's interesting that they decided to paint the U28's in red and silver warbonnet at all...

Exactly! That mystique is the reason for my fascination with those 10 odd-ball units.

Lance

PS [re: your links above]: That galloping garbage is bad enough, but for that hopper somebody oughtta be shot...

:^(



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/15 08:56 by santafe199.

Whenever I see photos of these units I am always reminded of my first HO trainset that I received at Christmas. It was a Tyco with the Alco C430 painted in this scheme. I can not remember which year it was, but suspect the late '60s or very early '70s. Santa had gone to the trouble of placing it on a 4x8' board and, I am sure, had plenty of fun running quality control tests before leaving it under the Christmas tree.

This scheme points out better than any other the value that small elements contribute to the overall appearance. Who would have thought those small bands of yellow and black were so powerful in the final product.

Jay

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Given the history of freight-painted, boiler
> equipped roadswitchers on Santa Fe, it's
> interesting that they decided to paint the U28's
> in red and silver warbonnet at all.  With the
> state of the passenger train business in 1966, and
> planning for the Super C already underway, the
> railroad surely must have anticipated that the
> units would spend some time pulling freight. 
> After all, the 20 F45's that had through steam
> lines and ATS equipment were painted in freight
> colors.

The guy who was 2d trick spatch at Shopton on the Chillicothe side when I was 2d trick at McCook was 2d trick was 2d trick Chief at Shopton when I was 2d trick Chief on B&OCT. We'd occasionally have the opportunity to talk. He told me that he was taking heat for assigning Fs to the prime trains (the days before bureaus, conference calls, and mandatory indecision), 1, 17, 19, and the U28s to 23, and to 15 only if there was no other way. He was asked bluntly why the newest power isn't being used on the Super Chief or at least the Chief or San Francisco chief. He responded with Do you want those trains to be reliable and run on time? The answer was Of course we do! to which he responded That's why I don't use the new units on those trains.

TAW

TAW Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Evan_Werkema Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > Given the history of freight-painted, boiler
> > equipped roadswitchers on Santa Fe, it's
> > interesting that they decided to paint the
> U28's
> > in red and silver warbonnet at all.  With the
> > state of the passenger train business in 1966,
> and
> > planning for the Super C already underway, the
> > railroad surely must have anticipated that the
> > units would spend some time pulling freight. 
> > After all, the 20 F45's that had through steam
> > lines and ATS equipment were painted in freight
> > colors.
>
> The guy who was 2d trick spatch at Shopton on the
> Chillicothe side when I was 2d trick at McCook was
> 2d trick was 2d trick Chief at Shopton when I was
> 2d trick Chief on B&OCT. We'd occasionally have
> the opportunity to talk. He told me that he was
> taking heat for assigning Fs to the prime trains
> (the days before bureaus, conference calls, and
> mandatory indecision), 1, 17, 19, and the U28s to
> 23, and to 15 only if there was no other way. He
> was asked bluntly why the newest power isn't being
> used on the Super Chief or at least the Chief or
> San Francisco chief. He responded with Do you want
> those trains to be reliable and run on time? The
> answer was Of course we do! to which he responded
> That's why I don't use the new units on those
> trains.
>
> TAW

Wow Tom! Now that is some insight! Thank you for sharing that snippet of managerial history.

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out

> want
> > those trains to be reliable and run on time?
> The
> > answer was Of course we do! to which he
> responded
> > That's why I don't use the new units on those
> > trains.
> >
> > TAW
>
> Wow Tom! Now that is some insight! Thank you for
> sharing that snippet of managerial history.
>
> Bob
>
> ATSF100WEST......Out

In certain shutdowns you had to stop the train, open doors under the cab to reset what was wrong and then use a pipe wrench on the layshaft to start the engine.  No doubt the man knew what he was talking about.  The retired 52 class PAs were probably more reliable and in the west, at least, better liked.