First ATSF “Super Fleet” GE

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

Okay, so the first official red/silver Super Fleet GE didn’t arrive until 1990, but Santa Fe’s 1960s passenger U28CGs, with it’s large red Santa Fe on the long hood, looked like a harbinger for things to come 20+ years later. If it weren’t for the vertical yellow stripe on the nose and lack of yellow striping on the side, these U28CGs can almost be mistaken for much later Super Fleet GE. This is the closest thing to what a spartan cab B40-8 or GP60 would have looked like if ATSF decided to repaint them into red and silver.

2

Which of the two paint schemes – 1960 versus 1990 – do you think more closely resembles the pre-Amtrak SUPER CHIEF and other passenger trains?

3

The 1990 version is truer to the original.

4

Yeah, the U28CGs had a so-called simplified version of the warbonnet, which ATSF didn’t carry over to the cowl-body U30CG or EMD FP45s. U30CGs and FP45s had the same warbonnet styling as the passenger F-units and Alco PAs.

5

Lyon,

I noticed this is a K.B.King photo,did you buy this from his estate or from another photographer?

Just wandering,I knew K.B. personally and I very seldom see his photos in public…

Thanks,

6

Nope, someone else put some of his pictures on railpictures.net. They’ve been posted there for quite awhile. Mostly Fort Worth, TX in the 1960s.

7

Cool pix, thanks for posting. These were a bit before my time so I never saw them in person, thanks for shareing these !!!

8

Why paint 'em back? They spent a large portion of their career hauling the Super C around. (and nobody since has consistently matched that performance)

9

The later Super Fleet locos look more like the original F-unit Warbonnet. The U28’s and their Warbonnet paint looks odd without the Safety Cab but this model and the Super Fleet GP60M’s both had problems with derailments. That ended the U28s’ passenger career in 1969 and were retired in 1980.