Does anyone know where I can find out whhat happened to the Santa Fe Kodachrome engines. Some I believe went to the BNSF and some were scrapped or sold off.
caldreamerDoes anyone know where I can find out what happened to the Santa Fe Kodachrome engines. Some I believe went to the BNSF and some were scrapped or sold off.
Pretty sure they were repainted pretty quickly in the late '80s after Santa Fe Industries was formed. I'd check with a couple of Internet picture sites to get a range of how quickly a given engine was put back into more normal ATSF (or BNSF) paint.
I believe the SP Kodachrome engines stayed around longer; in fact at least one is preserved.
(Does anyone have a factual reason why the holding company was SFSP but the Kodachromes were SPSF?)
Some wag said that the "SPSF" stood for "Shouldn't paint so fast"! I did not see any of the SPSF locomotives at Northtown.
Ed Burns
The Kodachromes were numerous in those times, and Santa Fe units and SP units lingered for quite some time after the merger denial.
Matter of fact, the SP had a disastrous total train derailment in 1989 several years after the denial, a runaway that reach over 100 M.P.H. for miles and miles in Cajon Pass to San Bernardino, CA . I remember seeing Kodachrome SP 7551 on its side at the pileup site.
SF Kodachomes linger for years too.
As for the order of the letters, AT&SF (who was in change) historically used the Santa Fe part as the tail end letters, and that carried through to SPSF as well as BNSF of today. The corporate holding company emphasized the Santa Fe first, SFSP.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- K.P.’s absolute “theorem” from early, early childhood that he has seen over and over and over again: Those that CAUSE a problem in the first place will act the most violently if questioned or exposed.
The last Kodachrome or merger painted unit was gone before the Superfleet units where delivered. Micheal Haverty made it his goal when he took over the Santa Fe to get rid of those engines as soon as possible. He did not care how new the paint was they were run thru the booth and redone again back into the Blue and Yellow or in the case of several SDFP45's as they were known right into the Red and Sliver Warbonnet again. He was like we are a forward looking road and those represent our failed past.
The BNSF 2004-2005 Locomotive Review book by Robert C. Del Grosso has a listing of the SPSF painted locos that made it to the BNSF roster. it appears all but 5 were repainted before the merger. The last ones that were still in the merger scheme appear to have been sold to NRE in 2003. They were numbered into the bnsf roster as 5176,5182,5184,5185,5193. they were C30-7s. hope this helps.
Looks like the C30-7s were the only ones that made it.
That helps, thanks
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