The ATSF changed from black/silver pinstripes to the blue ‘book ends’ scheme about the time the that the DL600B arrived on the property. IIRC, the DL600B ‘alligators’ started arriving in the black scheme and later orderscame in the blue ‘book ends’ scheme. This must be a mid to late 50’s time frame.
The FP45’s were deliver in the red/silver ‘War Bonnet’ scheme for passenger service. The F45 class engines followed shortly and were delivered in the blue ‘book ends’ paint scheme.
After the end of ATSF passenger service, old passenger F’s were assigned to freight service and were repainted in a ‘Blue Bonnet’ paint scheme. After going to the yellow ‘War Bonnet’ on freight engines, these ex-passenger engine got a ‘Yellow Bonnet’. My understanding is that it was too expensive to etch the stainless steel panels on the ex-passenger F’s and the modified ‘bonnet’ schemes were used. The D&H had similar problems with their ex-ATSF PA’s and used a ‘Blue Bonnet’ scheme as well(maybe the ATSF noticed and decide to try it themselve’s)!
when i said pre 72, im meant the blue and yellow, non warbonnet scheme, not the zebra stripe. I thought tht the blue and yellow scheme was called pinstripe?
and black and silver, zebra? Thats what the Athearn RTR CF-7 said, pinstripe. right? then what is the bookend/shelf scheme? anyway, thnks for all the info!
Ben
Most railfan publication list the non war bonnet blue/yelow scheme with the ‘book ends’ moniker - Look at a standard GP in this paint scheme; dark body with yellow ‘book ends’! Other than that Athearn engine, I have never heard about the ‘pin stripe’ paint scheme - the black/silver most of the time has been referred as the ‘zebra’ scheme.
The N scale F45/FP45 (whichever it is - if I post a photo could anyone identify?) was made to go with a magazine called “Locomotives of the World” published by Del Prado (who seem to be based in Spain) - they offered assorted locos as static models in N scale, the second of which was the FP45 - I bought two copies of that one as there’s no other easy way to build an N scale model of these. If you go to ebay.co.uk and type in “Del Prado” you’ll find plenty of them, they did some pretty exotic locos. It has a diecast mainframe (with the end platforms and fuel tank) and a plastic bodyshell that clips on top - my plan would be to take a Dremel to it to remove the excess metal and fix it to a Bachmann drive unit, as well as carving the ends to take Micro-Trains couplers in place of the moulded scale knuckles it comes with.
I took one of my Athearn FP45s to my LHS (Happy Hobo Trains). The manager took a new SD50 locomotive and allowed me to compare it to my FP45, side by side and chassis bottom to chassis bottom. The Athearn FP45 body is still too long for the P2K and Atlas SD50/60. This is why I stopped pursuing the project and decided, instead, to repower with Mashima. Additionally, the fuel tanks on the SD50/60 is too short for the FP45 as well. The only solution that I could see is if somehow the trucks could be moved further apart on the chassis, which of course the frame doesn’t allow.
For the short fuel tank, a solution is possible since it’s plastic Would involve obtaining another plastic fuel tank and doing a little “cutting and splicing” to get the correct length.
Great! Hope they consider doing the SDP40f in the future.
The F45 was about 2 ft longer than a standard SD45, and the FP45 was also a little longer than the SDP45. There is no ‘standard’ length FP45 that I am aware of. Only 2 railroads bought the FP45(ATSF/MILW) and the MILW ones lacked D/B’s.
The Amtrak SDP40F is not even related to the FP45. It is basically a ‘stretched’ SD40-2 chassis with a cowl carbody. It use ‘dash 2’ electricals, a 16 cylinder 645 engine, and different trucks under it. The FP45 was pre ‘dash 2’, and had the 20 cylinder 645 engine and Flexicoil trucks.
There was a rumor in the early 70’s that the Milwaukee ordered(MILW 6-8) and later canceled an order for 3 additional FP45’s. The rumor was that the frames were ‘on the floor’ at EMD and were used to build the second order of GN F45’s. In my younger days, we chased down the ‘suspect’ now BN units and did some measuring - standard F45. So much for ‘urban myth/rumors’ and railfan BS!
When ordered, the AT&SF FP-45 was a custom made SD-45 with Steam generation equipment and an enclosed body for aesthetic reason’s. The Santa Fe was so pleased ith their design they ordered some F-45 freight unit’s - w/o the steam package. EMD’s SDP-45, SD-40P, and other’s came later.
The GN SDP40’s were built in May 1966. The GN SDP45’s were built in June-Aug of 1967. The NdeM SDP40’s were built in 2 orders, starting in May 1968, and May 1970. The SP SDP45’s were built in May - June of 1967. The SDP40 was a ‘catalog’ model of the ‘40’ line when the ‘40’ line was introduced in 1966. The ATSF FP45’s were built in Dec 1967. The Milw FP45’s were built a year later in Dec 1968.
As can be seen, the GN & SP SDP40/45’s were built ‘before’ the FP45 units. ATSF asked for the cowl design for aestetic and several practical reasons:
o - Safe enclosed carbody so the fireman could service the S/G enroute.
o - Sloping windshield due to ‘buffeting’ experiences with the large ‘flat’ windshields on the GE U28CG units that already were in passenger service.
o - Reduced wind resistance at passenger speed.
I rode in a MILW FP45 from La Crosse to St Paul(Trailing unit on the Afternoon Hiawatha, an FP7 was leading). They rode very well, not a nice as a E9, but much better than the FP7’s. The reason the FP7 was leading was due to the lack of cab signals in the new FP45’s - restricting them to a trailing unit status in cab signal territory.