Nostalgia & History > Santa Fe's Kodachrome Scheme

 In the mid-1980's Santa Fe introduced us to a new paint scheme. Because it was a new novelty I aimed my camera at a few of their locomotives....

1. C30-7 # 8164 McCook, Il 6-26-88

2. FP45 #5990 McCook, IL 12-12-87

3. SD45 #5402 McCook, IL Feb 1987

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 4. SD40-2 #5182 Chicago, IL 10-16-88

5. SF30C #9539 McCook, IL 6-26-88

6. SD45-2 #5825 Riverdale, IL 5-5-90

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Very excellent set of photos, and great catch with the three FP45s together.
It was fun back then to find power with the new paint scheme, but I am glad
it did not become the standard.  I think the red number boards look awful.

I used to go down to Corwith on Sunday afternoons when lots of power was 
usually sitting around by the house, but the first SF Kodachrome power I saw
was at, of all places, IHB Gibson.  

Good stuff :)

ghemr Wrote:

> 2. FP45 #5990 McCook, IL 12-12-87

Nice catch!  The 5990 seemed to be kind of camera-shy until it got its red and silver paint back.  A few months earlier and this would have been an all-SPSF consist, but the second unit, the much more gregarious 5993, was one of the first SPSF-painted locomotives to go back to blue and yellow following the merger denial.  The third unit is one of 20 F45's that got the SPSF scheme, half the class!

Thanks for sharing these photos of this less-than-common paint scheme. Those red and white number boards look bloodshot.
Bob

Thanks for posting.  McCook was a great place to photograph trains when it was accessible.  Gerry

refarkas Wrote:
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 Those red and white
> number boards look bloodshot.
> Bob

Question for the Santa Fe fans: Is there a real purpose or significance to these red numberboards? Thanks..... Ghemr

ghemr Wrote:

> Question for the Santa Fe fans: Is there a real
> purpose or significance to these red numberboards?

They were just part of the paint scheme.  They weren't like the red, yellow, or blue-backed numberboards on some BN units that signified different brands of lube oil under test.  A lot of the Santa Fe 5800's ended up with black-backed number boards because they were renumbered down from the 7200's after the merger denial, and were going to get black numberboards anyway when they were inevitably repainted blue and yellow.  A scattering of other SPSF-painted units wore white-on-black numberboards as well.