Great to talk to you Bob and they went out this PM. Thanks for the great phone call! Send pics when they hit the layout. Mike
Nice Jerry! I would guess mid 60's to earlie 70's by the welding truck. The cut side skirts are a sure sign of premenant freight sevice. Mike
There was a relatively brief period of time where virtually the entire surviving F-unit fleet showed up in freight service. Amtrak had taken a chunk of F-units under lease, and as soon as the SDP40F's were delivered by EMD, (about Mar. 73?) returned them back to ATSF. The CF7 program was under full swing working off the inventory of available F's but could only eat them so fast. About the same time (73-74) there was a HUGE grain harvest headed to Russia out of gulf ports. Those factors combined to what you see in these shots - the last hurrah of F's - out of passenger service - and in consists the likes of which were never seen before. "Rail Classics" had a feature on the branch up to Superior, NE during that year that featured virtually nothing but ex-passenger and freight F's hauling grain drags south.
Thanks Randy , It seems like I remember seeing some of the warbonnets going through Albq. many many years ago on freights. Thanks for the info! Mike
They had been designed either by the Topeka or Cleburne shops and were called 'chicken baskets'. It's another one of those 1970-on spotting features of almost anything equipped with an EMD 567. They showed up on F's, GP7/9's, and the CF7's. They were unique to ATSF. I finally made a master out of wire mesh and have resin parts (for the stuck CF7 project). But I've used chunks of stripwood and plastic strip in the past, they aren't complicated, and get weathered to rusty-black anyway. Oh, and the whacked-up side skirts were there for a while even on passenger service. I think about late 60's? The only part that survived was the fuel tank filler mount area. By the time they had hit the 70's they were fully evolved into a rather unique looking version that only bears a resemblance to the way they were delivered by EMD. They are a lot of fun to model because of this. Once you really get into it you can literally date a photo by looking at the 'DNA trail' of applied modifications with established dates, like the spark arrestors, lift rings, ACI label slapped on the side, etc. Years ago Lee Burglund had an article on ATSF F-units, freight and passenger, and how he had modified his Athearn HO units. That's been my bible. He had plenty of 'delivered vs. modified' shots side by side, and wow, yeah, what a difference.
I could use 8 of those spark arrestors Randy. LOL What is the statis of the CF7 project? Still looking forward to that!
Appreciate the heads up. The ATSF F 7 looks mighty fine. Nicely detailed for N-Scale. Let's see if I add it to my wish list at the end it will take forever to get to it. Time to priortize and re-do the wish list and re-think the budget. Grin!
My 'problem' is that while I don't find it difficult to solder up brass for handrails and scratchbuild masters, I'm not a CAD designer. I can barely draw a box. Working with a photoetcher demands that they have to be done 'just so' and finding somebody that can draw to the standards that I have for the model and the etcher demands for production has now gone through three people and partially-finished artwork. Haven't given up yet although I probably should have. But if you need the resin detail parts, heck, I made those a long time ago. I have the stacks, air conditioner, spark arrestors, steps.... Tell you what, I'll bring some with me next week!
Sounds great! I know for sure I am off the 8th, and of course I will be up there the weekend. Looking forward to it.
I have an A unit from the first run. The paint is very good on it, but it lacks the windshield wipers. Are the grills wavey on the newer F units? Early runs suffered from non-flat grills.
