While paging through somebody's offerings on the infamous auction website, I came upon a "yellow bonnet" N scale Kato
ATSF F7....uh, was there such a critter? Somebody offered "black bonnet" F units in O (I THINK?), but don't know if
those were found anywhere except in Fantasy Land? Is Fantasy Land the place of origin for "yellow bonnet" F units?
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Yes there were such a thing as yellow bonnets. Kato got them right.
Absolutely there were! You can Google the complete history of them, but they showed up after Amtrak took over passenger service in 1971. There were only a few. MTH made a DAP ABA set a few years back in 3 rail.
I like all the "bonnets"--red, yellow, blue, and black--and have all four Williams versions even though I don't model Santa Fe. 
Was there ever a Black Bonnet? Prototype?
Was there ever a Black Bonnet? Prototype?
No.
Rusty
This should help muddy the waters:
Image: Santa Fe Modeler Third Quarter 1991
Santa Fe Modelers Organization
Rusty
You have to understand, to the Santa Fe, Warbonnet red was for passenger engines, and blue and yellow was for freight engines. They took that very seriously. It wasn't until 1989 that the Warbonnet was brought back on freight locomotives (the FP45s.)
What paint job was on the FP45s that pulled the Super C?
Was there ever a prototypical FP45 that was blue/silver?
Williams used to offer the FP45 in red/silver, yellow/ silver and blue/silver. I can find it in blue and yellow and even Kodachome red and yellow but have not seen a real life one in blue and silver. It looked really sharp.
I had a Williams catalog from just before the takeover. It easily had 2x as many paint jobs in it as they offer now.
Was there ever a Black Bonnet? Prototype?
No.
Rusty
No, but it still ranks as my favorite thanks to the "mistake" in Lionel's early catalog. It's the one I saw back then and wanted, but Santa brought me a red-and-silver one (because, of course, Lionel never intended it to be red-and-black).
You had to be careful of catalog depictions way back then, and sometimes you still have to be wary of them today.
I still need to order a display case for my four Williams models...that's next up on the "to do" list if I can find some wall space to hang it.
You have to understand, to the Santa Fe, Warbonnet red was for passenger engines, and blue and yellow was for freight engines. They took that very seriously. It wasn't until 1989 that the Warbonnet was brought back on freight locomotives (the FP45s.)
I'm pretty sure that the FP45 units where delivered to the Santa Fe in the Red "Warbonnet" styling, in the late 1960s. The FP45s even retained that "Warbonnet" styling into the 1970s for "Super C" freight service.
What paint job was on the FP45s that pulled the Super C?
Was there ever a prototypical FP45 that was blue/silver?
Williams used to offer the FP45 in red/silver, yellow/ silver and blue/silver. I can find it in blue and yellow and even Kodachome red and yellow but have not seen a real life one in blue and silver. It looked really sharp.
I had a Williams catalog from just before the takeover. It easily had 2x as many paint jobs in it as they offer now.
The FP45's were never painted in a blue warbonnet or yellow warbonnet with a silver carbody.
After being released for freight service some of the FP45's were repainted into the pinstipe scheme (like the F45's when they were delivered,) and later were repainted into the yellow warbonnet with blue carbody.
Eventually, some FP45's returned to the classic red warbonnet, but with the large "Cooper Black" lettering in red on the flanks.
Rusty
Some great info on Santa Fe "cowl units" here:
http://atsf.railfan.net/cowls/
Seems that most of them were repainted several times. From silver/red, to blue/yellow, to red/yellow, back to blue/yellow, back to silver/red.
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