The Oklahoma Railway Museum in Oklahoma City on Tuesday showed off the ongoing cosmetic work on Santa Fe EMD FP45 90, the first FP45 ever built. The locomotive, which previously wore faded red-and-silver “Warbonnet” colors from its Super Fleet days, was renumbered to 5990 — the number it wore while wearing the blue-and-yellow “Freight Bonnet” colors in the 1980s — and now wears those colors once more.
During the work, volunteers worked to repair rust-damaged sheet metal as well as apply new paint. This process revealed traces of red and yellow paint from when the locomotive wore the SPSF paint scheme, created for the proposed merger of Southern Pacific and Santa Fe, and ultimately rejected in 1986. This scheme was nicknamed “Kodachrome” for its resemblance to the Kodak slide film.
The museum says they do not plan to return the locomotive to operating condition, but hopes the new look will show off a different chapter in the locomotive’s history.
ATSF 5990 was built in 1967 by EMD and was originally numbered 100. In January 1968, 100 and sister 102, then fresh from the builder, were assigned to the inaugural run of the westbound “Super C”, a high-priority intermodal train from Chicago to Los Angeles. The inaugural trip would cover the distance in a record-breaking 37 and 1/2 hours.
Following a successful run on the Super C, the locomotive saw passenger service until Amtrak took over passenger operations nationwide in 1971. The engine and its sisters would be reassigned to freight service for the remainder of their careers. Shortly before being reassigned, the locomotive was renumbered to 5940. By the early 1980s, the FP45s were overhauled and renumbered once again, and 5940 was renumbered to 5990. The FP45s were painted in the blue-and-yellow “Freight Bonnet” scheme during this overhaul.
During the attempted merger of Southern Pacific and Santa Fe in 1986, a handful of locomotives were repainted into the “Kodachrome” paint scheme, including 5990. It would wear the colors of the failed merger until 1989, when Santa Fe repainted all of its FP45s into “Warbonnet” colors for a second time. It remained in active service into the BNSF era and was retired and donated to ORM in 1999. Of the nine FP45s rostered by the Santa Fe, six are preserved today.
— Nick Stewart
