Santa Fe 5704
Santa Fe 5704
Built in 1973 by EMD
5704 was one of five SD45-2 locomotives painted in a special bicentennial paint scheme in 1976 to commemorate the 200th Anniversary of the United States – in 1977 was repainted to the yellow warbonnet paint scheme.
In 1986 the locomotive was renumbered to 5834, then when the Santa Fe merged with Burlington Northern in 1995 the locomotive was renumbered again to 6484.
Retired in 2008 the locomotive sat in storage, where copper thieves stole most of the wiring and cabling and all of the copper components in the electrical cabinet.
In 2021 the locomotive was headed off to scrap but when Santa Fe historian Stephen Priest heard about this, he interceded and facilitated the donation of the locomotive to SCRM. Before heading off to California, the locomotive went to Mid America Railcar in Kansas City, MO for a complete cosmetic restoration. During the restoration all necessary sheet metal repairs were made, and anything added after 1976, such as ditch lights, was removed. The next step was painting, and was decided to recreate the bicentennial paint scheme from 1976.
After the cosmetic restoration, the locomotive was sent to the BNSF locomotive facility in Commerce, CA until a connection between Metrolink and the SCRM museum tracks could be made. In May of 2025 5704 arrived at SCRM. The next step was to evaluate the prime mover and estimate the condition. Until that was known it was decided to wait on the rewiring. The only mechanical problem found was a frozen turbocharger, which was rebuilt. When 5704 arrived in Perris it was predicted that the wiring project would take several years, however due a skilled and dedicated crew the mechanical and electrical restoration was completed in 11 months! In April of 2026 5704 ran under its own power for the first time since 2008. 5704 has a V20 EMD 645 turbocharged diesel engine that can develop 3600 hp.
The diesel engine drives a main alternator, which makes 3 phase AC power that is then rectified to DC, for use in the locomotive.
