Nostalgia & History > Santa Fe zebra stripe oddities

Santa Fe used a "zebra stripe" paint scheme featuring diagonal white stripes on a black background on the front of their doodlebugs from 1931 until 1944.  Santa Fe's switcher scheme in 1944 was a very simple all-black scheme with a square emblem centered on the hood, an aluminum pinstripe on the hood, and an aluminum frame stripe:

http://www.snowcrest.net/photobob/sfl66.jpg

Two years later, in an apparently local effort to increase visibility, a handful of switchers in southern California started showing up with orange diagonal stripes applied to their ends and cab sides on top of their existing black scheme:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2641661,2642043#2642043

The orange color didn't last, but between 1948 and 1950, when a "standard" zebra stripe scheme for hood units was adopted, a small variety of interim schemes with diagonal white or aluminum stripes began showing up on Santa Fe switchers and centercabs.  Here are a few I've come across in the Western Railway Museum Archives:

1. This was the most common interim scheme: diagonal stripes just along the frame edges, with the stripe angle reversing at corners of the locomotive rather than in the middle of the ends as on the "standard" scheme.  A few locomotives built new between 1948 and 1950 were delivered in this scheme - Alco S2's, Baldwin DS-4-4-750's, DS-4-4-1000's, and DT-6-6-2000's, and FM H10-44's - and a number of existing locomotives had similar stripes added by the company.  There wasn't a lot of consistency in the details.  Surviving painting diagrams that show the stripes angling up to the right on the front of the H10-44 and up to the left on the front of the DS-4-4-1000.  Both of these diagrams specify aluminum stripes, but color photos exist showing company applications with white stripes.  There was variation in the width of the stripes as well.  ATSF S-2 #2340 below has 30 diagonal stripes down the side, compared to just 21 stripes on 2357 at the following link:

http://www.snowcrest.net/photobob/sfl67.jpg

VO1000 2215 has even thinner stripes:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/rrpa_photos/102760/ATSF%20VO_1000%202215%20frbw.jpg

2. This Jim Spencer photo of DS-4-4-1000 2279 at Prescott, AZ is the only one I have seen of this paint variation, which extended the zebra stripes up the cab sides but not the front end.  Note that the stripes on the front all still run in the same direction rather than coming to a point in the middle as on the final zebra scheme.

3. DT-6-6-2000 transfer locomotives 2600-2605 were delivered in the interim scheme mentioned in 1 above:

http://condrenrails.com/Diesel-Locomotives/scans/ATSF-2600.jpg

The last DT-6-6-2000, 2606, was delivered in full zebra stripes but with the odd feature that the stripes angle reversed at the corners of one end, thus putting a point on both ends of the unit rather than a point on the end designated front and a V on the rear.  The rest of the DT-6-6-2000's eventually got the standard point-and-V version of the scheme, but 2606 went to scrap with its odd variation intact:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2814269,2814269#2814269

I say "eventually" because in 1952, E.K. Muller found Santa Fe 2600 working in the Los Angeles, CA area in full zebra stripes that came to a point on both ends and a V on the sides of the cab!  This is the only photo I've found of this variation, too.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/18 01:25 by Evan_Werkema.

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Keep in mind  Evan , that the 2602 had only a half  zebra stripe  in that the stripes didn't  cover the fuel tank.  I don't know how long it operated in this variation, and it wasn't one  of the handfull that operated out of Newton.  2602 is the only one I have ever seen photos of in this varation.  It was also the only one that had a wagon wheel radio antena 

Evan- thanks for giving us a good lesson on Sfe zebra paint jobs. Many of us should pay attention to our "homework". wag216 (80 years and still tying to learn new things-har-d-har)

Excellent... any SD24's or DL600B's?

Maybe that Otto Kuhler DL-109 of Uncle Johns' would have looked better in zebra stripes. Warbonnet surely didn't suit it.

EO
Or plaid.

These are beautiful photos and good information. Thanks for showing these.
Brian Stevens

mopacrr Wrote:

> Keep in mind  Evan , that the 2602 had only a
> half  zebra stripe  in that the stripes didn't
>  cover the fuel tank.  

Yep, that is yet another zebra variation.  There were other variations like that in the post-1950 zebra scheme, like whether or not H12-44's had stripes on the raised portion of their walkways.  Most didn't, but 516 did at least for a while.  And then there were the recently mentioned white zebras with silver numbers and pinstripes.

> I don't know how long it operated in this variation, and it wasn't one of the handfull that operated out of Newton.  

The 2600-2602 worked on the western end of the system until 1956, when they went to Kansas/Missouri to work out the their remaining days in the company of the rest of their sisters.  Photos of 2602 in Kansas generally show stripes all the way down the side of the tank skirt: 

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2814269,2814563#2814563
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/pictures%5C7426%5CATSF,%20Holiday,KS.jpg

Another unique feature of the 2602 was that it was the only one of Santa Fe's DT-6-6-2000's that never had the raised portions of its walkways extended over the trucks.  I've never seen it spelled out just what those extensions housed on the rest of the units.

> 2602 is the only one I have ever seen photos of in this varation.  

2600 in 1956: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2248995
2601 in 1952: http://www.snowcrest.net/photobob/sfl72.jpg , http://www.snowcrest.net/photobob/sfl71.jpg