U36C
8736	8739	8741	8744	8746	8749	8750	8752	8753	8755
photos contributed by: Richard Sugg, Evan Werkema

Twenty seven Santa Fe U36C's, 8736-8762, were not converted to SF30C's because they were leased rather than owned by the railroad. Of these, 10 received SPSF paint, as modeled by 8752 at Belen in 1986.

ATSF 2735 east with 8739 and 8755 dead-in-transit near Chillicothe, IL. August 17, 1992. Photo by Randy J. Williams

Santa Fe allowed the leases to expire on the unrebuilt U36C's, whereupon they were returned to the lessor and sent to scrap in 1992. All active Santa Fe kodachromes were supposedly back in blue and yellow by the end of 1990, and 8736 is known to have been repainted blue and yellow, but nearly all of the other U36C's that were painted in SPSF colors went to scrap still wearing that scheme. The units had stored at San Bernardino, CA since at least 1990, which explains how they evaded the paint booth, but since they were presumably all cut up, they don't qualify as true SPSF escapees.

Half Breed?

A colorblind, or perhaps just careless, shop employee attached an SPSF red and yellow battery box cover to otherwise blue and yellow U36C 8758, resulting in this odd "hybrid" appearance. Such occurances fortunately were very rare (but see the C30-7 escapees page for another example).