BNSF Santa Fe Warbonnet Locomotives

One of the most iconic railroad paint schemes of the 20th century was the red, yellow, and silver of the Santa Fe Railroad’s passenger trains. Given the nickname “Warbonnet”, this color pallet was used on the railroad’s famous name trains such as the Super Chief and El Capitan until the Santa Fe ceased passenger operations in April of 1971. In 1989, Santa Fe brought back an updated version of the classic scheme on their wide cab freight locomotive fleet. Debuting as the new “Super Fleet”, these locomotives featured large, red “billboard” style letters spelling out the name “Santa Fe” on each side of the unit. With the Burlington Northern Santa Fe merger of 1995, the newly formed “BNSF” needed additional locomotives and fast. Several orders for Dash-9 locomotives were placed with General Electric. Early on, a final new paint scheme had not yet been chosen for the newly formed railway, so a number of these locomotives received yet another version of the red and yellow scheme, this time with the letters “BNSF” on the nose and sides. Over 25 years after the merger, several of these “BNSF Warbonnets”, numbered in the 700 and 4700 series, can still be found in their original Santa Fe inspired paint. Let’s take a look at a few of these locomotives in action.

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