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Is this a real Santa Fe paint scheme?

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Is this a real Santa Fe paint scheme?
Posted by dima on Monday, July 26, 2010 11:54 AM

 This HO crane, do you think it's painted in a realistic prototypical Santa Fe paint scheme?

I've never seen Santa Fe in blue and yellow

 

 

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Posted by Allegheny2-6-6-6 on Monday, July 26, 2010 12:03 PM

 From what I understand yes that is a prototypical paint scheme but can not tell you if the colors are exact and or what time period it was done in. A while back there was a post regarding the same subject but the paint scheme was on a locomotive and it was weather or not the blue and yellow were ever applied to the warbonnet paint scheme or not while doing a search I did come across the blue /yellow Santa Fe paint schemes. I am sure we have plenty of SF efficenato's who will be able to tell you more.


Just my 2 cents worth, I spent the rest on trains. If you choked a Smurf what color would he turn?
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Posted by Milepost 266.2 on Monday, July 26, 2010 12:03 PM
dima

I've never seen Santa Fe in blue and yellow

Really?
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Posted by Darth Santa Fe on Monday, July 26, 2010 12:26 PM

I believe blue and yellow was very common for Santa Fe's freight units. For example:

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/150-7960
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/150-8190
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/150-45991
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/150-10000535
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/691-3327

They also used black and white for their yard and industrial units:

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/691-4842
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/920-40775
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/614-22605

I don't know the full extent of where they used their different paint schemes, but I believe those are the most common for the non-Warbonnet units.

_________________________________________________________________

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Posted by wjstix on Monday, July 26, 2010 12:47 PM

The first Santa Fe FT's (1941) were dark blue and straw yellow, with red striping between the two. Later after WW2 the standard freight scheme was dark blue but with more of a reefer yellow and without the red striping. In the last years before the BNSF merger some engines were painted into a version of the "warbonnet" red and silver, but blue and yellow was the standard ATSF freight colors til the end.

http://www.historicrail.com/Image.po?pn=0R07118&size=large

http://www.zuckerfabrik24.de/eisenbahn/pic3/FT_4sf.jpg

Stix
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Posted by BRAKIE on Monday, July 26, 2010 1:00 PM

The Santa Fe had wreck cranes painted in Blue and Yellow..

 

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/tr_sf199794.jpg

 

Until I seen that picture I would have guess that crane wasn't a prototypical scheme.

Larry

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"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt  Safety First!"

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Posted by maxman on Monday, July 26, 2010 1:01 PM

dima
do you think it's painted in a realistic prototypical Santa Fe paint scheme

 

Might be plausible.  See similar paint scheme @ http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1211441

There are other color variations if you look at the crane photos shown here: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsList.aspx?id=ATSF&cid=15

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Posted by RedLeader on Monday, July 26, 2010 4:59 PM

dima

 This HO crane, do you think it's painted in a realistic prototypical Santa Fe paint scheme?

It looks like Model Power's 250 Ton Crane.  I would say yes to the scheme, but it seems that the blue is a bit to light and the yellow to bright. 

I've never seen Santa Fe in blue and yellow

Actually is the must common of the AT&SF paint schemes since 1940's, as a matter of fact there have been several blue-yellow schemes.  These schemes were intended for the freight service streamliners, while the non-stremalined locos used the black&white scheme ("zebra").  Later the "zebra" scheme was replaced with the blu/yellow ones.  The first of these schemes was the "Cat Whiskers":

In 1951 ATSF revised this scheme and came with the "billboard" scheme or "pinstripe" (with large yellow letters).

a variation of this scheme was used for yard and industrial switchers during the 60's, it was almost the same as the "billoboard", but with two pinstripes and the words "Santa Fe" in small letters above the first stripe:

In the 70`s AT&SF came with the new "Yellowbonnet" scheme. Just like the "Warbonnet (red/silver)" scheme, but with a yellow cab and a deep blue body.  This scheme can be seen even until this day:

I beleived that in the 1960's ATSF aquired some ex- D&H units and kept the D&H "bluebonnet" scheme, just adding the ATSF logos and lettering.  They didn't last long as they were eventually repainted in the ATSF schemes:

Another rare scheme was that of the "Texas Chief" of the early 70's.  I think only two F units were ever painted in the "Texas Chief Yellowbonnet" and serviced until amtrak came along in the mid 70's:

 

I think those where all the "Blue and yellow" schemes of the AT&SF.  I beleive almost all of ATSF MOW equipment was painted yellow or blue/yellow.

 

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Posted by csmith9474 on Monday, July 26, 2010 5:06 PM

BRAKIE

The Santa Fe had wreck cranes painted in Blue and Yellow..

 

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/tr_sf199794.jpg

 

Until I seen that picture I would have guess that crane wasn't a prototypical scheme.

Hey, thanks for the PIC. I had not seen that photo before, and noticed that the boom car is a chopped down Santa Fe heavyweight passenger car of some sort. I guess that is on par with how the SF made their mail container flats (formerly heavyweight diners).

Smitty
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Posted by Southwest Chief on Monday, July 26, 2010 9:18 PM

dima

This HO crane, do you think it's painted in a realistic prototypical Santa Fe paint scheme?

I've never seen Santa Fe in blue and yellow

 

  

 

You bet that's a real paint scheme for a Santa Fe 250 ton crane. 

Now I'm of the belief that you meant you've never seen a Santa Fe crane or other maintenance of way equipment in blue and yellow before.  If you've never seen anything Santa Fe in blue and yellow, then a little more research is needed on your part.  You'll quickly find that blue and yellow is Santa Fe.

But back to the crane in question, yes it is appropriate.  The earlier paint used on the cranes was black and silver, similar to the zebra stripe scheme used on Santa Fe switchers and other non F unit diesels.  I can't give an exact date as to when they all received blue and yellow paint, but by the 1980s all of the cranes I saw in person were blue and yellow.  My guess would be they were painted around the same time the blue and yellow scheme replaced the diesel zebra stripe scheme (post 1960).

There is a crane similar to the model you posted in Winslow Arizona.  You can get close to it as it is a public display.  Used to be the Amarillo crane.  And yep, it is in blue and yellow paint.

I believe that all of the big 250 ton cranes on the Santa Fe were retired by the early 1990s.  A lot of them are still around though, but as static displays...like the one I mentioned in Winslow.

Most other Santa Fe maintenance of way (MOW) cars had aluminum paint.  Although there are some oddities out there like the big cranes, jordan spreaders, weed spraying cars, etc...

 

Athearn's paint jobs on their 250 ton crane model are pretty close to accurate for the Santa Fe, although there are some minor things wrong that I won't get into as they'll likely confuse you.  Anyway, here they are showing both the blue and yellow paint as well as the earlier black and silver paint:

 

Matt from Anaheim, CA and Bayfield, CO
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Posted by modelmaker51 on Monday, July 26, 2010 11:54 PM

RedLeader

I beleived that in the 1960's ATSF aquired some ex- D&H units and kept the D&H "bluebonnet" scheme, just adding the ATSF logos and lettering.  They didn't last long as they were eventually repainted in the ATSF schemes:

The D&H never owned any F or E units, (eventhough Rivarossi did make some blue warbonnet D&H E-units). Actually it happened the other way around, the D&H recieved 4 red warbonnet ALCo PAs that were transformed into blue D&H warbonnets. They were sold off to the NdeM when the D&H was done with them.

Jay 

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Other builds: https://imageshack.com/my/albums 

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Posted by Flashwave on Tuesday, July 27, 2010 3:21 AM

BRAKIE

The Santa Fe had wreck cranes painted in Blue and Yellow..

 

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/tr_sf199794.jpg

 

Until I seen that picture I would have guess that crane wasn't a prototypical scheme.

Heck, after seeing an SP Daylight wrecker, nothing surprises me in cranes...

-Morgan

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Posted by Forty Niner on Tuesday, July 27, 2010 3:50 AM

Just for "clarification"..............

All Santa Fe "freight" F units were blue and yellow until sometime in the early 1970's...........

All Santa Fe "passenger" unit's were painted in the red & silver scheme until reassignment when Amtrak took over passenger service........

The exceptions: U30CG's and FP45's were used on the "Super C" and were in the red and silver war bonnet scheme.......

Non F units were painted in the "Zebra Stripe" scheme of black with silver stripes, this was used until approximately 1960 when "all" freight engines were painted in the blue and yellow, the so called "pin stripe" paint scheme.....

This all changed in the early 1970's as they experimented with different combinations of the "war bonnet" scheme.

There are 2 excellent books on Santa Fe diesels covering everything until the early 1970's........the author of both of these books is Cynthia Preist and I would highly recommend them to any Santa Fe fan as they are a wealth of valuable information.......

Mark 

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Posted by cudaken on Tuesday, July 27, 2010 6:55 AM

Forty Niner
All Santa Fe "freight" F units were blue and yellow until sometime in the early 1970's...........

 

 Mark, as a kid I remember seeing Red and Silver War Bonnets F's pulling into the B&O yard in Washington Ind. My grandfather house over looked the yard and it was around 1963.

       Cuda Ken

I hate Rust

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Posted by Southwest Chief on Friday, July 30, 2010 11:39 AM

cudaken

Forty Niner
All Santa Fe "freight" F units were blue and yellow until sometime in the early 1970's...........

 

 Mark, as a kid I remember seeing Red and Silver War Bonnets F's pulling into the B&O yard in Washington Ind. My grandfather house over looked the yard and it was around 1963.

       Cuda Ken

 

The reason for that is many of the Santa Fe F7s in warbonnet paint were called "dual geared" or "dual service" locos.  They could pull freight or slower passenger trains.  Numbered in the 325 class (although the earliest delivery was the 300 class which were later renumbered into the 325 class).  I probably should check on this but I think the top speed was 80mph, so not exactly fast enough for the Super Chief and others in the 90mph sections but a good compromise for fast freights and passenger service.

Back in 1963 the Santa Fe would rarely have mixed and matched blue and yellow and warbonnet locos on the same train.  So you likely saw an all warbonnet trainset pulled by the dual geared locos.

Matt from Anaheim, CA and Bayfield, CO
Click Here for my model train photo website

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Posted by UP 4-12-2 on Friday, July 30, 2010 12:01 PM

Santa Fe had at least 15 photograph confirmed F7A's painted in the Yellow and Silver Warbonnet paint scheme.  Two were used in Amtrak service; Amtrak did not like the Yellowbonnet scheme, so those units were returned to Santa Fe, and used in freight service (with the other former passenger units) until their retirement.

Santa Fe had 7 photograph confirmed F7A's painted in the Blue and Silver Warbonnet paint scheme.

All these units were former passenger service or dual service F units with the stainless steel side panels.

Additionally, at least 2 freight F9A's received the full yellow warbonnet on blue freight paint scheme.

Those who model the 1970's can have red-, blue-, or yellow-and-silver warbonnet F7's on a freight train--even all within the same consist!

John

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Posted by WPAllen on Friday, July 30, 2010 2:42 PM

I'm noticing on Ebay that the blue and silver Genesis F7's are commanding higher prices. Ahearn or someone needs to make another run of them as there appears to be some demand for them.

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Posted by scottychaos on Friday, July 30, 2010 9:50 PM

RedLeader

I beleived that in the 1960's ATSF aquired some ex- D&H units and kept the D&H "bluebonnet" scheme, just adding the ATSF logos and lettering.  They didn't last long as they were eventually repainted in the ATSF schemes:

 



Actually you have that backwards! ;)

the units came from the Santa Fe and went to the D&H..First came the Sante Fe Alco PA's in the ATSF warbonnet colors, Red and Silver:

http://www.american-rails-forums.com/AR%20Images/Diesels/ATSF_DJ_PA.jpg

then four of these ATSF units were sold to the D&H in 1968, becoming the last four Alco PA's in existance...The D&H kept the basic ATSF paintscheme, but replaced the Red with Blue:

 http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/tr_dh18.jpg

Then D&H bought their famous Baldwin Sharks in 1974, and painted them in the same scheme:

http://www.bridge-line.org/blhs/images/diesel/dhl1205.jpg

So it was the D&H scheme that was influenced by the much older ATSF scheme...Santa Fe blue schemes are not derived in any way from the D&H.

D&H only owned six cab units in its entire history, the 4 Alco PA's and the two sharks..they never owned a single F or E unit..

Scot

 

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