KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Santa Fe SD45-2 5704 has been restored to its mid-1970s bicentennial red, white and blue scheme at Mid-America Car in Kansas City, Mo., and will head west to the Southern California Railway Museum this summer. 

In the fall of 2020, BNSF Railway donated the SD45-2 to the California rail museum and since then workers have been putting it back into its 1970s appearance. Locomotive 5704 was one of five SD45-2s painted into the unique scheme to celebrate America’s 200th birthday. 

“Numerous individuals and organizations embraced this restoration effort,” said Hank Winn, SCRM vice president and chief operating officer. “Stephen Priest was the on-site project manager in Kansas City, which made a lot of sense given his proximity, knowledge, experience, expertise as an author, publisher, model railroad industry consultant, master model railroader and historian on all things Santa Fe. Without Stephen’s tireless pursuit of perfection, this project would have been much more challenging and we appreciate, and applaud, the investment of his time and energy on behalf of SCRM.”

Once the locomotive arrives in California, the museum will begin to look at what it will take to make it operational again.