1027 lives on!
Trains’ favorite number is out once again on a new locomotive
Norfolk Southen's new SD70ACe No. 1027 gleams in the sun at Chattanooga, Tenn., in December 2011 when brand new. Scott Coffey photo
The same until, earlier this week, on Jan. 10, in Johnstown, Pa., carries on the tradition of Trains' street address being a favorite number! Tony Kimmel photo
If you’ve been around Trains magazine for long, you know that we have a fascination for the number 1027. It was the street address of the company’s headquarters building on North Seventh Avenue in downtown Milwaukee from 1943 to 1989, and during most of that time famed Editor David P. Morgan was producing some of his best journalism. Starting in October 1952 with a drawing in the magazine of an F7 numbered 1027, the number took on a life of its own. Readers and editors had a common number out there on which to fixate, and in poured pictures of locomotives, cars, and all sorts of other railroad items numbered 1027. Ten-twenty-seven mania abounded. It was on a Louisville & Nashville GP30, a Canadian National GMD1, an Erie Lackawanna RS3, a New Haven 4-6-2, among other locomotives and freight cars.
Even when Kalmbach Publishing Co., Trains’ parent company, moved to the suburbs, the number followed. Our street address is 21027 Crossroads Circle, or as those who follow the 1027 mythology like to point out, that is "Second 1027."
The number 1027 has done well on railroads in the modern era. BNSF Railway has a C44-9W built in 1996. Canadian National's Illinois Central has an SD70 built in 1999. And CIT Group has a leaser AC44CW in CEFX bright blue with the beloved number; it dates from 2004. Both the IC and CEFX units pass near our offices from time to time, on their respective CN and CP main lines.
And 1027 news just keeps coming. Just last month, Norfolk Southern took delivery of the latest 1027, a brand new EMD SD70ACe. The unit has been getting around, too. Photographer Scott Coffey caught her in Chattanooga, Tenn., when she was first out of the shop, and his image came from NSlocos.com; and Tony Kimmel found her in Johnstown, Pa., just earlier this week on Tuesday.
It’s fun to see a new unit take to the rails, and it’s intriguing to imagine where she might roam over the next 20-30 years. Pulling unit coal trains, heading up mixed freights, roaming the west on run-through power, the newest 1027 should have an amazing time during the rail renaissance of the 21st century. At the same time, we can watch her exploits and enjoy a bit of mythology behind this most uncommon of ordinary units out there on a Class I railroad.
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Racen7
wrote
re: 1027 lives on!
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Fri, Jan 13 2012 12:07 PM
Will be looking for here in Illinois.
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swabrian
wrote
re: 1027 lives on!
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Fri, Jan 13 2012 12:12 PM
And, Southwest Airlines Flight #1027 operates from Milwaukee to Kansas City.
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LNER4472
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re: 1027 lives on!
on
Fri, Jan 13 2012 12:35 PM
I think I could remind you that the Kalmbach crew back then--Keefe and Ingles, I think--pulled a few strings during the building's construction to get the number changed from 21025 to 21027 for that very reason. In spite of all the magazines Kalmbach publishes, it was Trains that did this, so....
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LNER4472
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re: 1027 lives on!
on
Fri, Jan 13 2012 3:02 PM
The old 1027 N. 7th St. became part of the Milwaukee Area Technical College, right? It looks like the old building is still standing, incorporated into the campus. That brown building with the Doric archway on the west side of 7th St., right? http://g.co/maps/x27bs
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edbenton
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re: 1027 lives on!
on
Fri, Jan 13 2012 6:03 PM
I could have Sworn I saw her Last week here in Streator on the Kanakee to Streator line about the 12th engine back as I was coming back from my Dentist appt.
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efftenxrfe
wrote
re: 1027 lives on!
on
Fri, Jan 13 2012 6:48 PM
Ah, the compulsion invoked by that street address number....NWP crews left their trains at Schelville but grabbed their cabooses and tied up a few miles away at Sonoma where, reconoitering among the SD7's and cab's I Kodachromed a caboose for no other reason than it was SP's 1027. Mid 1960's in the Bay Area, right?
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cat992c
wrote
re: 1027 lives on!
on
Fri, Jan 13 2012 7:32 PM
Send to Lafayette,Indiana
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cat992c
wrote
re: 1027 lives on!
on
Fri, Jan 13 2012 7:33 PM
Send to Lafayette,Indiana
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cat992c
wrote
re: 1027 lives on!
on
Fri, Jan 13 2012 7:33 PM
Send to Lafayette,Indiana
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ferrophile
wrote
re: 1027 lives on!
on
Fri, Jan 13 2012 10:57 PM
Everytime I read 10:27am or pm on a clock, it's automatically time to think about trains!
Same thing for milepost 10.27, or 102.7, or else... anything that reads 1027 is just another reason to switch my mind to trains.
Funny!
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Thanks Jim,
1027 North 7th Street, Milwaukee, brings back fond memories. I purchased my first Trains Magazine, THE Magazine of Railroading!, from the Tampa Union Station newsstand. It was the October 1959 issue!
How about a story about Trains, MR and Model Trains, with the crew back then, Al Kalmbach, David P. Morgan, Lynn Westcott and lovely Rosemary Entringer. Photos of the building and MILW tracks would fill out the artical.
Walthers should make a model in HO, N and O scale!
Joe Toth
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UPerGary
wrote
re: 1027 lives on!
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Fri, Feb 3 2012 8:41 PM
It's not exactly 1027, but here in Gladstone, MI, we have a CN switch engine and slug numbered the opposite of 1027. The engine is 7201 and the slug is 201. I don't know what type engine is CN 7201.
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Kevin Keefe
wrote
re: 1027 lives on!
on
Tue, Feb 7 2012 10:56 AM
LNER4472 gave Dave Ingles and me credit for the current address of 21027, but the credit actually should go to longtime Trains Art Director George Gloff. When we moved out here to Waukesha around 1988, George was deeply involved in designing the new building, especially the interior, and he was also a participant in discussions of an exact street address. Since we had a wide range of available numbers above 21000, he thought "Hey, let's keep 1027 going!" So we did. Thanks, George.
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blue streak 1
wrote
re: 1027 lives on!
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Sun, Mar 11 2012 7:12 PM
WOULD NEVER HAPPEN but if NS painted 1027 in trains mag colors -------------------- ?
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