All dressed up in flashy SPSF merger colors, SP SD45R 7562 prepares to depart Rio Grande's Roper Yard for Ogden and points west. By 1985, the Southern Pacific Santa Fe merger was opposed by the Justice Department and denied in a 4–1 vote by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) on July 24, 1986, who ruled that such a merger included too many duplicate routes and was therefore monopolistic. The Commission denied SFSP's appeal (again in a 4–1 vote) on June 30, 1987. Nonetheless, an SPSF railroad appeared to be a done deal by mid-1986, as the SP had repainted 17 SD45R units into SPSF 'Kodachrome' livery. SP 7562 was built a standard EMD SD45, #8941 in February 1968. After it was retired from service on the SP, it began a new life serving as the Buffalo & Pittsburgh #453.
