Former Santa Fe bicentennial diesel No. 5704 is on its way to its new home in California.
Photographer William Tollett caught the SD45-2, restored to its mid-1970s paint scheme earlier this year, on Thursday, June 23, at Panhandle, Texas, on BNSF Railway train ZPLKLAC6-22.
The locomotive was donated to the Southern California Railroad Museum in Perris, Calif., last year [see “Southern California Railroad Museum adds ATSF bicentenntial SD45-2 …,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 6, 2021] and repainted into red, white, and blue earlier this year at Mid-America Car in Kansas City, Mo. [see “Preserved Santa Fe SD45-2 restored …,” News Wire, March 2, 2022]. It was recently displayed at Kansas City Union Station prior to the current move to Perris, where the museum hopes to restore the locomotive to operating condition.
I have always thought that of all the bicentennial paint schemes that we saw in the mid-1970s the Santa Fe engines were the best. I remember several railfanning days at Fullerton, CA watching the Super C breeze through the station with one of those units in the lead. Santa Fe always seemed to do just about everything with a bit more class than the other railroads. Looking forward to the Perris team getting 5704 back in operating condition.
Beautiful! I wish they would have brought it to Railroad Days in Galesburg before taking it to California.
Looks Good!