Santa Fe Railway FP45 93
Santa Fe 93 was one of nine FP45s purchased by the railroad to pull passenger trains. They were the last nine passenger locomotives purchased by Santa Fe. Delivered in late 1967 by the Electro-Motive Division (EMD) of General Motors (GM), and built in the Chicago suburb of La Grange, they wore Santa Fe’s iconic red and silver “warbonnet” scheme first applied to passenger train diesel locomotives in 1937. Initially Santa Fe’s FP45s were numbered 100-108. Each FP45 contained a large steam generator to provide heating and cooling in the passenger cars. They are just over 72 feet long, weigh nearly 200 tons and could routinely pull passenger trains at speeds up to 90 m.p.h.
When Amtrak assumed operation of most U.S. passenger trains on May 1, 1971, Santa Fe’s nine FP45s had their steam generators removed, were repainted into the railroad’s blue and yellow freight locomotive scheme and renumbered 5940-5948. In the early 1980s, after operating more than two million miles, the FP45s were rebuilt at Santa Fe’s San Bernardino, California, shops. They were renumbered into the 5990 class. In the 1980s Santa Fe’s FP45s moved freight throughout the railroad system.
On June 1, 1989, Michael R. Haverty became Santa Fe Railway president. Seeking a new image for the railroad, Haverty approved an updated version of the red and silver passenger scheme and dubbed it Super Fleet. The FP45s were once again red and silver and once again they were numbered in the 100 class. They became standard bearers for future orders of new locomotives that were all painted in the Super Fleet scheme. The FP45s were renumbered into the 90 class when new Super Fleet locomotives began arriving in May 1990.
Santa Fe Railway merged with Burlington Northern Railroad (BN) in 1995/1996 to form today’s BNSF Railway. In 1998, after more than 30 years and millions of miles of service, BNSF Railway retired all six FP45s remaining on its roster and donated them to museums in Illinois (92), Kansas (93), Oklahoma (90), Texas (97) and California (95 and 98).