Sunday, April 13, 2014

1981 TOFC led by FP45 5942

The FP45's were originally ordered for passenger service and thus had a steam generator in the rear of the loco, making it about 5 feet longer that its cousin, the F45, the trailing locomotive on this train.  The steam generators were removed sometime after May 1, 1971, when Amtrak took control of U.S. passenger service.  The Santa Fe would not surrender their prize FP45's to Amtrak.



Close up of mild weathering on FP45 5942. Santa Fe had nine of the fifteen FP45's manufactured by the Electro Motive Division of General Motors.  The Milwaukee Road bought the other six. 

Beginning in January 1973, Santa Fe began rebuilding its fleet of eighty SD24's.  They received engine upgrades, new traction motors, upgraded wiring, and other improvements, boosting its horsepower from 2400 to 2625.


 F45 5937 is a beautiful Athearn model.  These F units were basically an SD45 with a cowled hood.  It was the freight version of their FP45 used in passenger service just prior to Amtrak. With 20 cylinders, these units packed a whopping 3600 h.p. from its 645E3 prime mover. 

F89-J flat car by BLMA.  On board is a Penn Central 40' trailer and an American President Lines exterior post 40 footer.

Santa Fe drop frame trailer (TWX) and 40 custom painted/decaled Burlington trailer (MT)'


The first 10 flats in this train are the F89-J's. The yellow with black is the 70's paint scheme. The F89-J's were first manufactured by American Car & Foundry in the 1960's.   Here are two trailer offerings from Athearn.

This F89-J sports the original brown with white lettering scheme of the 60's.  Santa Fe "Piggy-Back service" scheme originated in the late 60's, as did the B&O paint scheme.

Custom painted and decaled 45' Transamerica trailer (MT) and 40 foot exterior post Santa Fe trailer from Athearn.

Micro Trains 45' Western pacific trailer and Athearn 40' Trailer Rail Service, sporting red undercarriage and red wheelsets.

A couple of Santa Fe 40' cars from Trainworx.  The white trailer is refrigerated, with mechanical equipment and fuel tank attached to the undercarriage.

TWX Western Pacific drop frame trailer and Athearn SF 40 footer

MT 45 ft. Chicago and Northwestern trailer and a beautiful TWX Pacific Fruit Express refrigerated trailer.  The flat is the final F89-J in this train.

Rio Grande (TWX) and Santa Fe (Athearn).  This is the first of two TWX flat cars in the 70's yellow and black paint scheme.  It is a model of the Pullman Standard 85' flat car, first manufactured in the 1960's

Another beautiful 40' trailer from TWX, the Bud of California, and Baltimore and Ohio exterior post trailer ("Tofcee Service", a very uncute way of saying TOFC, trailer on flat car).  Caboose is Atlas wide vision model.  Santa Fe owned 55 of these wide vision Waycars, purchased in two groups, 1974 (Ce-6)and 1978 (Ce-8).

 You can see a video of this train on YouTube at:


                              http://youtu.be/6ayC8SdFQuY