Makes me wonder if that F unit ever traveled through here. I used to see them all the time in my teens and twenties, those big purple locos, sometimes in 6 unit consists to pull the CGW's famous 200 car long trains. Doug
If you want a really good idea of what a large brace of 567s growling sounds like, get ahold of a copy of Rio Grande Odyessy: http://www.greenfrog.com/20019dvd.shtml. There's a sequence of 8-10 first-gen EMDs midtrain shoving on a coal train over Soldier Summit, and it is incredible. "Black & White at 481.4" CP train 199 makes track speed past the detector at MP481.4 on the CP Portal Sub.
EMD 567B prime movers. Just like several GP9's or SD7's, etc. Very sweet music. Having grown up with such sound, I miss it, a lot. And just yesterday I heard a horn on a video which was perfect for a memory match of those from that same time of my life.
You see, the problem is when I see an F unit I want it. Other questions: Why can't they bring them back. All railroads should have them. And so on. You see my problem.
From April 1984 at Mobile, AL, TASD (Terminal Railway Alabama State Docks) SW-1500 681 is being started. She was later sold to the Paducah & Louisville. TASD's per diem boxcars were everywhere back then. [09/13/1988, Prattville, AL]
Believe me, they were. I spent six years listening to B&M's FT, F2, and F3 ABBA's growling on the Fitchburg Division during the late 40's and early 50's.
I remember reading about the FTs and how some WW2 veterans described the sound of a set of them, heard in the distance among the hills, as like a squadron of heavy bombers. I grew up with the sweet sounds of Alco 251 engines in CPR's RS18s, back in the 70s. And a couple of years ago, I was at a flea market (general, not train stuff) near here when I heard a distant horn of a train going over the old CPR Lachute sub. The familiar chord echoing in the early morning air had a haunting tone. It gave me goosebumps just from the old memories of 40+ years ago, when I was a kid. I'm getting goosebumps right now just recalling this.
I was lucky because we not only had the GGW here with all those F units, we had the Milwaukee Road, too, and they had them. I used to sit up on the overhead pedestrian bridge on my bike and watch them switch and make up a train. When a northbound train was ready, it started out right near a level crossing and I would ride my bike down there to watch it leave. I remember at that time, in the sixties, some of the F's still had the orange with a maroon strip down the side and some had the simplified plain orange scheme. The Milwaukee never had six units together, usually two but sometimes three, but when they revved them up with, that wah-wah-wah-wah, it absolutely thrilled me! That's REAL power! I also got to hear the four or five SW1's used on the Smoky Valley line and the turbo charged Baldwin S-12 switcher. Doug
In the final days of the Santa Fe F units, they all wound up in Texas. They were waiting to be cycled through the CF7 program at the Cleburn shops. To get the last bit of work out of them before totally rebuilding them, they used to put a bunch of them on the point of long unit grain trains heading for the gulf coast ports at Houston and Galveston. Typically 8 or more units in a dog's breakfast of paint schemes would start the trek but usually a number of them would die in route. They would coax them all back to life at the Milby Street shops in Houston and send them back north toward Cleburn. It was fun to hear them all especially when they were all running. I wish I could find my old photos but alas, they seem to be lost.
What I find great about those old photos where the crew poses with the engine is how proud they look. They're the crew of the most state-of-the-art transportation machine of their era. People respected railroaders. What's not to be proud of? The second one from left, in the conductor's cap, bears a striking resemblance to Gomez Addams. That might explain his fascination for trains.
MKT caboose 835 started life in 1910 at American Car and Foundry as one of the MK&T boxcars in the 74105-75597 series. In 1937 the steel underframes of some of those cars were built into the 821-840 series (first series of a new class) cabooses in the Denison, Texas car shops. In 1964 it was sold to the Texas Transportation Museum, which then sold it for use as the sign for the Loose Caboose Motel in Sinton, Texas. Then it was sold to a scrap yard in Corpus Christi. In July 1986 it was sold to be used as a private lake cabin and in 1995 it was donated to the Austin Steam Train Association. In 2002 it was bought for display next door to the Katy House bed & breakfast in Smithville, Texas. In 2014 it was donated to the Katy Depot Museum in La Grange where it is shown here in September of 2015.
I caught this transformer being unloaded in a steelyard siding off the Lancaster Northern over the last couple of days. Final picture was taken Saturday as the flatcar awaits pickup. DSC06651 by Sepp K posted Jan 17, 2021 at 12:22 AM DSC06729 (2) by Sepp K posted Jan 17, 2021 at 12:22 AM DSC06809 by Sepp K posted Jan 17, 2021 at 12:22 AM