A complete cosmetic restoration of the Santa Fe Railway diesel-electric locomotive No. 93 is well under way and expected to wrap up by spring or early summer, Wichita, Kans.-based Great Plains Transportation Museum (GPTM) reported Feb. 23. Built by the Electro-Motive Division (EMD) of General Motors Corporation in late 1967, the unit was donated to the museum by BNSF in June 1999.
Following years of fundraising, the Santa Fe No. 93 restoration campaign in June 2025 eclipsed the approximately $200,000 required to have the work completed. When the locomotive was grit-blasted down to bare metal last fall at Mid-America Car in Kansas City, Mo., more damage was revealed and GPTM commenced a GoFundMe effort to raise additional funds. The museum has now reached its goal of raising an additional $50,000.
“While the GoFundMe effort raised several thousand dollars, the majority of the $50,000 we needed was donated, or is committed, directly to our museum by generous supporters who learned of our need via publicity generated from our announcement,” GPTM President Heather Gatton said Feb. 23. “Every donation to our Santa Fe 93 cosmetic restoration project is important, and we appreciate the incredible support we received from so many people who want to see 93 in gleaming new red and silver paint.”
Santa Fe No. 93 was transported to Mid-America Car last summer. BNSF worked on a round-trip transportation plan. According to GPTM, the Oklahoma Railway Museum, using its BNSF customer account, created the waybill necessary to move No. 93 under the reporting marks OKRX93. The Class I railroad in late July performed a mechanical inspection of the unit required for movement.
No. 93 pulled Santa Fe passenger trains between Chicago and California or Texas from 1967 to 1971 and freight trains for Santa Fe and successor BNSF from 1971 to 1998, according to GPTM, a 501(c)3 not-fot-profit educational and preservation organization. It will be restored in the red and silver Santa Fe Super Fleet scheme it has worn since 1989, when then railroad President Michael R. Haverty approved an updated version of the well-known and historic scheme used on passenger train locomotives from 1937 to 1971, the museum reported when restoration-work fundraising began in 2023.
Donations are still being accepted online via www.gptm.us or https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-santafe93, in-person at GPTM (700 East Douglas Ave., Wichita, Kans., 67202), or via phone (316-263-0944); and lithograph and canvas giclee prints of John Winfield’s “Warbonnet Renaissance” are still available for purchase in support of the effort.
