Nostalgia & History > Santa FE SD45-2 truck color

Can any body tell me if the Santa Fe SD45-2s were deivered with black or silver trucks?

Thanks.

Randy Lundgren
Elgin, TX

Randy, here is a shot of 5643 leaving westboundout of Winslow, AZ on Mar 02, 1974. Trucks were black on the first order.

KC

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Great power, great consist and neat lighting!  Not to mention all the various "45" models in that lashup. You got a winner there!

Yep, Santa Fe liked their 20 cylinder engines!

texchief1 Wrote:

> Can any body tell me if the Santa Fe SD45-2s were
> deivered with black or silver trucks?

Unfortunately, it's not a one-or-the-other situation.  Ralph Back wrote an article on Santa Fe SD45-2's that can be seen here:

http://old.atsfrr.org/resources/BackRalph/Santa%20Fe%20SD45-2.pdf

Distilling out the as-delivered paint scheme information, it goes something like this:

5625-5661 (May 1972): blue and yellow pinstripe scheme, black trucks
5662-5704 (May-June 1973): blue and yellow warbonnet, black trucks
5705-5714 (May 1974): blue and yellow warbonnet, some with black trucks, some with silver trucks

Page 9 of that PDF has a photo of just-delivered 5714 displaying its silver trucks, and Back says "some units in this order were delivered with silver-painted trucks - 5714 was but 5705 was not."  Page 189 of the Santa Fe Railway Diesel Locomotive Painting & Lettering Guide for Model Railroaders says the directive to start painting trucks aluminum (a.k.a. "silver") came down in February 1974, and there's another just-delivered photo of 5714 on page 58 of Santa Fe Motive Power confirming the silver truck color. 

As for 5705, the photographic evidence of black trucks upon delivery isn't unequivocal.  3rdswitch took a photo of the eastbound Super C at Blue Cut in January 1975 with eight-month-old 5705 on the point, clearly with black trucks (while 5712 behind it has silver trucks):

https://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=387735

However, he also shot the second photo in this old thread, again of the Super C at Blue Cut but sixth months earlier in July 1974, with two-month-old 5705 as the second unit.  Those sure look like silver trucks to me, especially compared to the black ones on lead unit 5701: 

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2641630

Perhaps the 5705-5714 all came with silver trucks, but 5705 had its trucks swapped for a set of black ones just a few months after delivery for some reason? 

Though outside the scope of your question, it's interesting to note that during the first year of the blue and yellow warbonnet scheme (mid-1972 to mid-1973), most repaints had yellow stepwells in addition to black trucks.  The books don't give a specific date for the order to change to blue, but I've never seen a photo of a new or repainted SD45-2 with yellow stepwells.  All of the blue and yellow warbonnet-painted SD45-2's delivered in 1973-74 appear to have come with blue stepwells, witness the second photo in this old thread, also of the Super C at Blue Cut by 3rdswitch in December 1974, showing May 1973-built 5688 second out with its blue stepwells. 

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2764534

By contrast, in 1974 GE was still turning out new U36C's with yellow stepwells (but with aluminum trucks!):

https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/pict/401751629527_/Original-Slide-ATSF-Santa-Fe-New-U36C-8740.jpg

A few units later, blue stepwells started appearing on new U36C's as well:

https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/pict/312537070058_/Original-Slide-ATSF-Santa-Fe-New-U36C-8745.jpg