Eichholz Rail V170 No. 1125, a Swedish-built diesel, shows off its “Warbonnet” markings on an excursion train at Traiskirchen, Austria.
Raimund Wyhnal
BNSF may have given up the famous “Warbonnet” scheme it inherited from predecessor Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, but a German company is keeping the classic scheme alive. Eichholz Rail, a German railroad services company, applied the scheme to a Swedish-built NoHAB V170 diesel, an engine that looks something like a double-ended E unit.
When it was painted in 2007, it wore the name “STRABAG,” Eichholz’ parent company, on its cigar bands on each nose where “Santa Fe” would have gone on the U.S. warbonnets. However, when Eichholz leased the engine for a chartered passenger train, it received a foil “Santa Fe” marking. The chartered train ran from Augsburg, Germany, to Kosovo, bringing the Warbonnet to a part of the world that may have only seen it on toys.
