Railroad Trains for the Soul: Santa Fe Warbonnets
Very fantastic photo of the modern third-generation diesels from Santa Fe's Super Fleet! They were all painted in the retrospective red/silver Warbonnet scheme, which was resurrected in 1989. It was first applied to a couple of EMD FP45 cowls as they were already demoted to freight duty after Amtrak assumed control of passenger duty across the nation. After demonstrating the new comfort cab in a borrowed Canadian National cowl unit, the Santa Fe requested the Warbonnet paint scheme for the EMD four-axle GP60M as well as GE's four-motor DASH 8-40BW.
In this photo are the first three models of the Super Fleet, including the GP60M (No. 100), the DASH 8-40BW (No. 500), and the six-axle DASH 8-40CW (No. 800). They were also shown as sort of the leaders of each locomotive class, due to their lowest roster numbers being displayed. That really made a perfect publicity picture of the Santa Fe before the 1995 BNSF merger caused a big change in railroad colors. I think this is one of my favorite photos showing the modern Warbonnets, especially with their first cab numbers of each type.
Photo credit: Classic Trains collection
