Santa Fe F45's sold to Morrison Knudsen

Most of the F45's sold to Morrison Knudsen in April 1994, units with MKM sublettering under the road number, lost their Santa Fe markings during 1995. The majority ended up looking like 5964 above, with the noseband and Santa Fe lettering on the carbody painted out. Note the addition of ditchlights - a feature none of the BNSF-owned F45's received.

Ex-ATSF 5977 was an interesting variation on the theme. The blue noseband remained but with "Santa Fe" painted out.

Only the last four MK F45's, ex-ATSF 5986-5989, retained full Santa Fe markings after 1995, as 5987 illustrates in this 1996 view.

At least a few of those four lost their markings after MK left the leasing business and sold the units to Helm and Motive Power Industries. MPEX 5989 shows evidence of her quick relettering job at Richmond, CA in mid-1999.

This unit was one of several painted in the SPSF merger scheme in the mid-1980's. When painted back to blue and yellow, many F45's received smaller, hood-unit sized emblems instead of the larger, cowl-sized emblem modeled by 5987. On units with the smaller emblems, the stripes were usually carried around the sides of the nose as on 5977 above. On 5989, though, the stripes were only as long as on a hood unit. They were barely long enough to reach around to the sides of the nose.