The American Bicentennial is just a year off, and Santa Fe’s fifth Bicentennial locomotive, SD45-2 5704, has still not been repainted. By this point, ATSF 5700-5703 were all painted and usually found on the point of the hot Super C piggyback train. But here was the fifth Bicentennial unit, still awaiting its turn in San Bernardino’s paint shop, wearing its original paint while leading a quartet of SD45-2s on the Super C. In fact, poor 5704 would not get the patriotic colors worn by its sisters for another six months, emerging from the paint shop on January 13, 1976, some eight months after the fourth Bicentennial unit, ATSF 5702, got repainted on May 12, 1975. (Fullerton, California – July 24, 1975)
