The locomotive livery featured the Santa Fe's "Yellowbonnet" with a red stripe on the locomotive's nose; the remainder of the locomotive body was painted in Southern Pacific's scarlet red (from their "Bloody Nose" scheme) with a black roof and black extending down to the lower part of the locomotive's radiator grills. The numberboards were red with white numbers. In large block letters within the red portion of the sides was either "SP" (for Southern Pacific-owned locomotives) or "SF" (for Santa Fe-owned locomotives). The lettering was positioned on the locomotive sides so that the other half of the lettering could be added after the merger became official. Two ATSF EMD SD45-2s (ATSF #7219 and #7221) were painted with the full SPSF lettering to show what the unified paint scheme would look like after the merger was complete. One Santa Fe caboose was also painted with "SPSF" in a similar situation.