Nostalgia & History > Looking for the last Santa Fe pinstripe GP35...

Here's a hair-splitting rivet-counter's challenge for you: does anybody out there have a photo of Santa Fe GP35 3368 or 3418 taken in 1983 or 1984 they could post?  Let me explain...

In the thread "3 Friday flares of dubious quality" Milwaukee asked:

> Other than the Beep and
> the plow that is still in Topeka, what were the
> last units still active in the bookend/pinstripe
> scheme and when were they last active?  

Before the Beep, the second-to-last active, non-preserved Santa Fe unit wearing a version of the blue and yellow pinstripe scheme was SW900 1453, which was retired in 1987.  Third-to-last is less well-established. The newest photographs I've seen showing active roadswitchers in blue and yellow pinstripe show unrebuilt GP30's and GP35's in the early 1980's. They would lose their pinstripes for blue and yellow warbonnet as they were sent through the remanufacturing programs that ran from 1980-1985.  I have never run across a claim of which unit was THE last, and it's possible we will never know for sure, but here's what I have collected on the subject.  The GP30 and GP35 rebuild programs began in earnest in 1980 and 1981 respectively, and I make the assumption that if a unit was still in pinstripes in 1981, chances are good that it wasn't repainted again before it was rebuilt.  The GP30 program was done by mid-1984, but there were some GP35's known to have kept their pinstripes into the early 80's that were rebuilt in the second half of 1984:

3302, rebuilt 8/84, photo from 1983: http://www.antiquesnavigator.com/d-1284857/orig-slide-santa-fe-atsf-gp-35-3302-roster-1983.html
3310, rebuilt 7/84, photo from 1982: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2087489
3368, rebuilt 11/84, photo from 1981: http://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/dr0100/atsf3368.jpg
3387, rebuilt 8/84, photo from 1980: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2201417
3402, rebuilt 7/84, photo from 1984: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3082657

The "winner" for the third-to-last active Santa Fe pinstripe unit is most likely 3368, though that 1981 photo is admittedly still fairly early.  There is one other wildcard, however: GP35 3418 was rebuilt 12/84, and I can't find any photos of it from the early 80's to confirm whether it was still in pinstripes or if it got blue and yellow warbonnet back in the 70's prior to being rebuilt.  So...does anybody out there have a picture from 1983-84 of either of these GP35's: ATSF 3368 or 3418?  Be careful on that 3418.  In 1987, Santa Fe started rebuilding GP39-2's and renumbering them into the 3400's recently vacated by the GP35's, so if your photo of ATSF 3418 was taken after April 1987, or the unit has an anticlimber or a snowplow pilot, it's a GP39-2 and not the GP35 we're looking for.  Thanks in advance.

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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> does anybody out there have a photo of
> Santa Fe GP35 3368 or 3418 taken in 1983 or 1984
> they could post?  

Definitely not the best picture but here is a shot of the 3368 in the deadline at San Bernardino with the stack capped, taken in June of 1984.

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This should eliminate the 3418. San Bernardino 3/84. Roster collecting can be useful.

Keith A

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Thanks guys for providing an answer to the question I raised yesterday.  I didn't realize the GP35's ran that far into the 80's in that scheme.  

Evan,

This sounds similar to my quest to find the last UP 6 axle units that had the small long hood lettering. Most U30Cs, SD40s and SD40-2s lost the small lettering by 1981, but I did find one unit that kept it as late as 1984, the 3299.

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Thanks for the help, guys!