Yes if I recall this was when Sante Fe were going to take over SP, hmmm I will have to look at aquiring on of these models in N scale.
They should be available from Inter Mountain...eventually. I think the current announcement is for a Kodachrome SD40T-2. The engine in this picture is an SD45T-2. Maybe others have more info. You can never have too many tunnel motors.
okay, so what exactly is a "tunnel motor"? is it a type of engine? or a paint scheme? kinda confused here, somebody please explain! thanks, -Rob
Rob, if you look on the picture above, you'll see the air intakes (at the rear) are down as low as possible, as opposed to their usual position near the top of the carbody. This was done so the units would draw cooler, fresher air while going thru tunnels. (Compare the location difference between the "Kodachrome" unit and the NS unit). Hope this helps. Bill
Sorry, but I really do not like that paint scheme - far too garish for me I was pleased when the merger fell through Pity we never saw one with the full "SPSF" lettering though!
There were two engines painted "SPSF." One was Santa Fe and one was Southern Pacific. They had white letters instead of the matching yellow letters as all other SPSF engines had. Also, they were both painted in the same location at the same time. Pictures were taken and then the paint was removed. SP kept the white SP and ran the engine like that, the only engine so painted. I think the number was 7334, an SD40. This is the same engine that was eventually painted in the experimental hood diesel daylight colors. AFAIK, no engine was ever operated with SPSF. In the ceremony of paint mentioned above, I have seen several photos of the individual engines, one with the white SF and one with the white SP, but none with the SPSF. Also, I think there were three engines involved...two ATSF and one Espee.
Rob - Yes, a tunnel motor is a type of locomotive. The easiest spotting feature is the radiator section. Alan - I know a lot of people don't like this paint scheme and I know I'm an odd ball so that's all I can say about that. Paul - I also am looking forward to Intermountain possibly doing this paint scheme!!!! Flash - Thanks for the background. I do remember seeing a photo of one unit in full SPSF lettering but did not remember the lettering being white.
A pretty good history of the SPSF paint scheme is in Southern Pacific 1987/88 Motive Power Annual by Joe Shine. ATSF SD45 5394 was the engine shown in the SPSF white lettering colors. SP SD45 7551 was the engine with the white SP letters. The "SP" was later painted yellow. SP SD40 7342 was the engine painted in Daylight colors.
And here all the time I thought a tunnel motor was a special motor installed in tunnels to provide inverse torque to the rotation of the earth on its axis, that would allow the tunnels to keep from collapsing. I believe that explanation was once posted on the Yahoo ESPEE list.
Odd, that's the best-looking "Tyco" SP diesel I've seen. Most of the SP engines painted this way suffered from peeling paint, which comes as a result of bad surface prep ( but of course, SP never saw an engine washer it couldn't avoid ). Fewer SP engines were painted in this scheme than were Santa Fe engines.
I like this paint scheme, especially on the Tunnel Motors. On my roster is only one SD40-T2 the rest is grey and scarlet. For those who are intersted in more detailed information. DIESEL ERA Volume 12 #6 and Vol. 13 #1 covered all the Kodachromes from both companies with color pictures and numbers of the repainted engines. Including both types of the famous SP Tunnel Motors. I'm still waiting for a SD45-T2 in HO in plastic...
SP painted many models in that paint scheme. We have a GP-9 still running in that paint scheme at the Portola Railroad museum. We had an MP15DC running around the bay area for a while in that paint scheme too. Greg
I have a picture which I need to upload still of an old SD9 in the Kodachrome on the Port of Tillimook bay railroad in Oregon. the engine was being used for parts. I was under the impression that the big problem with SP and it's paint was that some bizarre California law required them to paint all there engines in the state and on top of that, for environmental concerns, the paint mix was not as good as what is used by the rest of the world and so there paint faded and chipped faster. I don't remember where I heard that though.
