I read somewhere, can't remember where, that Santa Fe F units in red and silver warbonnet were for passenger trains only. Well, I just got done re-watching part of my Santa Fe odyssey on video cassette (yes VHS) and saw several freights being pulled by red and silver F units. There were even mixed consists with blue and yellow f units and red and silver f units. So if you want to pull freights with your warbonnet f units, go ahead!
When the red and silver, Santa Fe, War Bonnets first came out the then president of the Santa Fe railroad warned his staff that he better never see them pulling freights. For a considerable period of time it was so. He retired and a new president took over. He had a different view and it wasn't to long before you found the red and silver pulling freights and the blue pin stripe pulling passenger trains. That was about to change as the stockholders took him to task. The first FT's to arrive on the Santa Fe property were experimental for freight trains only, or so it was alleged. They were painted in the Cat Whisker, blue and yellow pin striping. Santa Fe experienced a locomotive shortage and the first (freight only) FT's were ordered into the shops to be rebuilt and re-geared to pull passenger trains. They came out with the red and silver warbonnet. For most of their years they pulled passenger trains with some minor exceptions. It wasn't long until the GP7's, GP9's, RSD15's and SD24's showed up in the Zebra Stripe livery. Steam was ordered off the line and sent to be torched. To be followed by most of the red and silver jobs pulling primarily passenger trains. Mixed into this order of diesels was a most unlikely candidate for passenger service, the GP7 TT's, designed with a boiler on board. These were assigned to pull the short locals or early versions of commuter trains. A number of these ran out of San Bernardino, CA., to the LAUPT, the Redlands Circle, down to Perris, Ca., just to name a few. In an era just before Mike Haverty, took over as president, Santa Fe went through an identity crisis and locomotives were mixed and matched in ways that seemed like an abomination to even the most hardened of rails. FP 45's in the red and silver coupled to F45's in the blue pin stripe streaked across the landscape pulling what was to be the last Santa Fe passenger trains. Older F3's and F7's could be seen on the head end of many of those passenger trains. Mixed into those consist or on the point you would find GP 7's with Torpedo Tubes, originally in the Zebra Stripe and now painted in the blue pin stripe. These boiler equipped GP's, pulling an assortment of passenger trains. Later GP9's were outfitted the same way and pulled passenger trains. This was possible because both types of loco's were geared for high speed running. Mike Haverty, saw an opportunity to cash in on the infamous red and silver paint scheme and brought it back to pull his high speed, C trains. Most of the F type units that were still on the roster, were turned over to Amtrak. Amtrak begin trashing Santa Fe's services and the "Chief" name was removed, with the exception of "Southwest Chief". Amtrak won the right and permission to use that name. Santa Fe did go through a rebuilding of the F type units turning some into CF7's with the yellow war bonnet paint scheme. Others were rebuilt and used as B units are supposed to be used. Later the CF7's and remaining B units were sold off to short lines or companies needing electrical generating equipment. A humble end for most of them. This was supposed to be the short version...so...I better quit here. Feel free to jump in and elaborate. Honestly, with your own vivid imagination, you can't hardly go wrong with what you want to do on your home layout... that hasn't been done on the real railroads. It's very likely you can find a prototype for just about anything you can imagine to do on your model railroad. .
Hi Rodney, Here's a link to the Santa Fe Railway Historical & Modeling Society: http://atsfrr.net/resources/funits/index.htm Great information about Sante Fe's F Units in both Freight and Passenger service. Worth the read and now I don't feel guilty running my Red War Bonnets with freight after 1972. LOL! Bill Mock
That Santa Fe Odyssey (Gulash) tape is a classic, I have it myself. Prior to the Super Fleet/Haverty era, there were a number of specifics where red and silver pulled freight... 1) The one series of F7's was geared slightly slower and considered 'dual service' units. That's what's on the Gulash tape pulling reefers, etc. Intentional by design. 2) The original short "Super C" piggyback trains of 1-5 cars were often pulled by Passenger F's. Several photos exist of abbreviated Super C trains 1-2 flats, and a caboose, one F. 3) After Amtrak, a substantial number of ex-passenger F7's in red and silver were assigned to the Superior, NE branch for grain service. That went on until they were converted to CF7's. 4) After Amtrak, most - but not all - U30CG and FP45's were promptly repainted into blue and yellow pinstripe, but a handfull of holdouts lasted years beyond. 5942 and 5944 FP45's, and the 8005 U30CG seem to have made it several years keeping red and silver before they got repainted. The 5942 and 5944 were regularly used on the Super C. Post Amtrak - 1972 -, ATSF was on a campaign to erase not only the red and silver paint but also the "Ship and travel" logo, along with all references to the passenger trains. The 1972 "Santa Fe" billboard freight scheme was the result, along with the yellowbonnet. What's amazing is that the red and silver U28CG's that had the red "Santa Fe" on the side, six units - apparently had the train set manufacturers pick up that scheme and broadcast it wildly in the 70's - if you remember the chrome and red GP40's, etc. from Bachmann and other hood units from Tyco like the high-nose C628. That, as much as anything, created the Super Fleet image push - it became a recognizable Santa Fe image as anything although it only existed on the tiniest handful of units and was pretty much of a complete fabrication at the time.
I found this image too. DUPLICATE slides - ATSF Santa Fe 330 Action on Freight - eBay (item 280459263982 end time Feb-07-10 19:06:40 PST)
There were lots of other places where ex-passenger Fs pulled freight in the 1971-75 timeframe. You could still sometimes see solid red/silver sets, but more often you saw mixes of pre-1972 scheme freight Fs, the occasional post-72 freight scheme, silver/red, silver/yellow and silver/blue Fs with GPs and CF7s. More B-units lasted longer in red/silver; by about '75, they were all that was left. I don't know if any of those lasted to the end of Santa Fe F-unit operations in '78.
