Can anyone tell me what the term “warbonnett” means?
By definition a warbonnet (only one t) is a headdress worn by certain Plains Indians consisting of a band with a long extension of eagle feathers attached to it at the back.
When the Santa Fe Railway was reequipping its Super Chief in 1937 they were purchasing some new E1 diesels from Electro-Motive Corporation. While looking at a drawing of what became Santa Fe E1A #2, artist Leland Knickerbocker said of his artwork that it resembled the profile of an Indian head and the trailing feathers of a war bonnet. Knickerbocker’s red nosed diesel paint scheme of 1937 became the icon of Santa Fe passenger locomotives for decades.
Thanks to Stan Repp’s The Super Chief . . . Train of the Stars for the account of Leland Knickerbocker’s artwork that became the red warbonnet of the Santa Fe.
I suggest you spend a few days on your couch watching good old American John Wayne type western movies and you will see plenty of “warbonnets”…or simply come to the US and sit by the BNSF mainline for a while and you will undoubtedly see some (come quick as they are disappearing fast).