Santa Fe Bluebonnet BNSF 181 GP60 Locomotive

The Santa Fe Railroad had some of the most iconic paint schemes ever designed for locomotives. In this video, we will look at a well known Santa Fe paint scheme that was applied to locomotives as early as circa 1975. Often called Freightbonnet, yellow bonnet, and sometimes bluebonnet, this was the standard freight locomotive livery Santa Fe adopted in the mid 1970s, following a several year long period of experimenting with various different schemes. For nearly a decade and a half, this was the only livery used by the Santa Fe, aside from the experimental SPSF merger scheme. Among the last locomotives delivered new to the Santa Fe in this scheme were the 40 EMD GP60 units purchased by the railroad in 1989. Today, just about all of these locomotives still carry this paint scheme as they continue to work for the BNSF Railway. One of these locomotives, BNSF number 181, was assigned to the Pacific Northwest pool of locomotives. In late 2020 and through most of 2021, the locomotive was based out of BNSF’s Delta Yard in Everett, Washington and saw use on manifest mixed freight and local trains on the Bellingham Subdivision. Let’s travel to the Bellingham Subdivision to see the 181 pulling manifest freight trains in between Everett and Custer as well as up to Sumas, Washington on the Sumas Branch line.

CoasterFan2105 is the home of all sorts of train and railroad related video content. Stop by every Friday at 9 AM Pacific time for an all new railroading adventure and be sure to check out all of my social media pages @coasterfan2105 for even more great railroad content. Thanks, and I'll see you down the line!

[genuineapbt]

I worked as a conductor and switch foreman for BNSF La Hobart, Pico Rivera, Malabar Yard, Auto Dock… for many years. I loved these little 2200 & 2400 units. Nice wheel base to get in and out of old industries. Easy to put back on the rail. Believe me it’s not as hard as it seems 😉

[VonWasHere]

I Just Saw 2 Geeps Last Week And Today And They Were Numbered 181 And 182 I Didn’t Know 181 And 182 Used To Be Bluebonnets! No Wonder They Look So Fresh! They Were Probably Freshly Painted Into BNSF Livery

[ALTL]

My toddler loves your train videos 👍👍. His first video he watched was the one you explained the types of passenger trains. Thanks for your videos.

[SoCalOCRailfan]

Great video Mike! I love to see these Santa Fe like paint schemes on locomotives. 👍

[kj]

I spotted blue bonnet 188 at Fullerton last week. Classic!

[MokkaMatti]

As a(n increasingly rare) native Western Washingtonian, I was born and raised in the South Puget Sound (Tacoma area), but spent my early/mid-'90s Uni years up north in Whatcom County, living in Bellingham. Back in my WWU Viking days, one of my favourite hangouts in "the 'ham" was Boulevard Park, situated along Bellingham Bay, that I could easily walk to from my apartment. Once there at the park, I could either stand on the pedestrian bridge overhead, or stretch out on a big boulder along the shore, and watch the various consists roll past. I certainly like the traditional Warbonnet livery, and the freight-derived blue/yellow version still looks sharp, standing out in an ocean of units in their Great Northern-derived scheme. This was a great video to see, since it's been going on 15 years since I was last up that way. Thanks for providing a current look at what's going on in a part of my state that I miss exploring, and would like to return to someday.

[StationRailfan]

Great to see a Bluebonnet GP60 still out there on the rails in 2021. Nice video!

[sunnysiderails]

Really well done video, top notch!!! Love the old Santa Fe units and man some of the landscape shots in this video are the best I have seen!!!

[shoebillstonk]

Your voice takes me back to my Childhood Pentrex days man! Dayum!

[AVeryRandomPerson]

Fun Fact: The GP60 is the last ever produced Geep, behind the GP60M

[TheAustinSubRailfan]

Cool video I always love to see these old SF locomotives!

[willyalves]

I'm Brazilian, I worked 8 years on the railroad, I have several videos of when I worked, I love railways.

[jwrailve]

If y’all like bnsf heritage units check out the Galveston locomotive yard there’s literally a couple hundred at least all schemes of Santa Fe and BN units

[gergo_]

Hi! Nice video of train history. I love us trains. unfortunately there are no such trains in Hungary

[tonycoldtrain]

I watch the video with pleasure, thank you✌

[BnuuyBoi]

I love the the warbonnet and bluebonnet schemes

[wolfgangpfeilergartenbahnd]

Very nicely filmed, the locomotives in Santa Fe blue / yellow. Great movie scenes.🎥👍👍👍👍

[ConrailGeep]

I saw this loco switching in wisnlow back in 2019, I'm glad it's still running the rails today

[OrangeCountyRails]

Sweet video Mike! Here at home I have an HO Scale GP15-1. But, that's not a GP60 that I'm talking about, of course.

[svtrains]

Very beautiful video! Very well shot. Thanks!