ATSF had a later departure from Passenger service than most. so had a surplus of passenger 'F' diesels that AMTRAK didn't want, so Santa Fe converted their 'F's to freight.
The Yellow-Bonnet was an experimental scheme - as was the Blue Bonnet. ATSF converted the remainder to CF-7's for 1500hp witchers.
InterMountain produced both the Yellow & Blue Bonnets , and Athearn RTR the CF-7. All 3 are excellent runners and recommended.
pastorbob wrote: They weren't gold bonnets, we called them yellow bonnets on the Santa Fe. They were painted that way, along with the blue bonnets when Amtrak took over. the units Santa Fe had in silver and red that they didn't want to lose to Amtrak were repainted blue or yellow to distinguish them from the new "Amtrak units."Bob
They weren't gold bonnets, we called them yellow bonnets on the Santa Fe. They were painted that way, along with the blue bonnets when Amtrak took over. the units Santa Fe had in silver and red that they didn't want to lose to Amtrak were repainted blue or yellow to distinguish them from the new "Amtrak units."
Bob
When we were talking about the goldbonnets, that was in reference to the PA with the gold paint, not the F7 yellowbonnets. I got the goldbonnet name from the Overland release of the PAs with the gold nose.
The yellowbonnet is one of my favorite Santa Fe paint schemes. Maybe it's the rarity, or maybe it's just the looks, but I love it.
There were only 2 units painted in my favorite variety, the passenger yellowbonnet with silver underframe, trucks, and pilot. These were F units #304 and #315. I have an Intermountain HO #304. There were multiple freight varieties with blue/black underframes, trucks and pilot. Each one had various nose (cigar band) logo colors, and striping.
The yellowbonnet scheme came at the extreme end of the Santa Fe passenger era, so not very good for your transition period. I model in 1957, so it's not right for my era either. But I like the scheme so much I just had to have one unit.
Here are 3 beautiful photos (from Railpictures) that display the passenger yellowbonnet in all it's glory:
UPDATE
And since there's a lot of confusion over the Goldbonnet PA, I scanned these images from my copy of Santa Fe 1940-1971 In Color Volume 4: Texas-El Capitan, by Lloyd E. Stagner. This scanned image is for educational purposes only, so please do not copy it. I'm not keeping it online for long so take a look to familiarize with this amazing one time paint scheme.
Matt from Anaheim, CA and Bayfield, COClick Here for my model train photo website
csmith9474 wrote:FYI: I am sure Arjay is aware of this as well, but the SF also had some F7s painted in the "bluebonnet" scheme, with a blue nose instead of the red.
FYI: I am sure Arjay is aware of this as well, but the SF also had some F7s painted in the "bluebonnet" scheme, with a blue nose instead of the red.
Yep. And honestly, I like the Bluebonnets better than the yellow.
BTW, thanks for the explanation on the goldbonnet PAs, Arjay. I knew they existed, but didn't know why. I recall Overland did a run of PAs with this paint. I can't say I particularly care for the gold, though.
No problem. IIRC, they were only painted that way for a couple of months, and photos are hard to come by. In fact, the only photo I've seen is in one of Lloyd Stagner's books.
Robert Beaty
The Laughing Hippie
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The CF-7...a waste of a perfectly good F-unit!
Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the
end of your tunnel, Was just a freight train coming
your way. -Metallica, No Leaf Clover
That sounds like a Yellowbonnet to me. A few F-units were repainted from the red/silver warbonnet to the yellow/silver as an experiment when Amtrak took over passenger operations (the units were leased to Amtrak for a time). However, Amtrak didn't like the Yellowbonnet scheme, and the units were reassigned to freight service.
To the best of my knowledge, no PA's were ever painted in the yellow scheme, but one WAS painted in gold and silver for a brief time as part of a special "Golden Values" train.
Hope that helps!
I do alot of searching on e-bay for locomotives and rolling stock for my layout. While paging through the Santa Fe section I came across a paint scheme I have never heard of nor seen in pictures so I need some help as to whether or not it was an actual paint scheme.
It appears on covered wagons and a PA, and is very similar to the D&RG livery. Where the "real" models of warbonnets have red, these units have a bright YELLOW in combination with the silver body. The majority of my layout is dedicated to Santa Fe at the steam to diesel transition. I have many books on the Santa Fe and can find no mention of any such paint scheme. Can anybody shed any light on this as to whether or not this paint combo did exhist, if so, when and was it just promotional or experimental?
Thanks.
trainnut57 confused in Erie