Cotton Belt 955 was an F7A built in October 1951, serial trace is 14820. It was upgraded in the Pine Bluff Shops in the late 1950s. The 955 was sold to EMD on January 31, 1969. Data from Joe Strapac's Cotton Belt Locomotives and Cotton Belt Folio 725 Locomotive Diagrams dated April 1965.
Cotton Belt's only FP7 was renumbered to 306 on March 30, 1952. It was upgraded in the Pine Bluff Shops in the late 1950s. It lost it's daylight paint scheme in October 1958, becoming one of the first Cotton Belt units in gray and scarlet. After the last passenger runs in late November 1959 the FP7 was leased to the Southern Pacific on January 6, 1960. The Espee used it in commuter service, where it carried the number 6462. The FP7 was sold to EMD in May 1972.
All data from Joe Strapac's book Cotton Belt Locomotives and Cotton Belt Folio 725 Locomotive Diagrams dated April 1965.
Fred Frailey's excellent book, Southern Pacific's Blue Streak Merchandise, remains one of the best all time reads on a specific freight train in the US, of which copies can still be found at reasonable prices. The famous Cotton Belt slogan that decorated box cars for years, Blue Streak...Fast Freight, said it all!
Did the SSW FP7 330, when painted in the SP "bloody nose" scheme, receive a final renumbering to SSW 955? There are two photos of SSW 955 in Tom Dill's Southern Pacific's Sunset Route - A Color Pictorial. Both photos were taken in 1965, one in freight service and the other as the lead unit on train No. 39, the Imperial. Unlike parent SP's locos, this one did not have the additional "Mars" headlight.
Fred Frailey's excellent Kalmbach published book on the Cotton Belt Blue Streak Merchandise freights remains one of the all time great railroad books written in the 20th Century!
The SSW didn't invest any more $$$ into the passenger business than was absolutely nessesary but it was a no-nonsense railroad when it came to moving customer's goods on extremely tight demanding schedules. The slogan found painted on the box car fleet lived up to it's name like none other found on any other railroad: Blue Streak/Fast Freight!
Don't remember the passenger trains, but vividly remember the trains on the river line from Thebes to Chester in the 1960's, that they shared with Mopac. The Cotton Belt trains always appeared faster, and had that Mars light going. At night, you could see them for miles along the river bottom, where the track ran parallel to IL Route 3. In daytime, you could see that SP paint scheme. A special treat in an area dominated by the Mopac and IC.
Given that the original post was in 2008, as were the two following replies, those kind folks and the OP may well have read the Spring 2015 edition of Classic Trains Magazine. That magazine gave a good article on the SSW on pages 16 - 19 inclusive. It gives some of the facts published here in the last few days but also has some good photographs and a route map.
Anyone interested in the CT article can still get a back copy of it from Kamach.
Alan, Oliver & North Fork Railroad
https://www.buckfast.org.uk/
If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there. Lewis Carroll English author & recreational mathematician (1832 - 1898)
Steve Goen's excellent book Cotton Belt Color Pictorial published by Four Ways West (out of print) has a nice collection of diesels SSW used in passenger service. Missing in color is the only GP7 rostered on the entire Southern Pacific Lines, the 304, which was delivered in the famous Daylight scheme! Goen did take the liberty and included the unit in the book albeit in black and white.
Cotton Belt's fleet of passenger diesel had an impressive variety for 9 units.
PA-1 301-302 (to SP 6067-6068) SP Daylight scheme with silver roof, COTTON BELT lettering
FP7 330 (later 306) SP Daylight scheme with ST.LOUIS SOUTHWESTERN (as built) or COTTON BELT (after a wreck) and finally SP Bloody Nose.
GP7 304 only geep in SP Daylight scheme to black widow
RS-3 308,309,310,313,314 Last two delivered in switcher black and orange, later got black widow, 308-310 delivered in black widow. 311(second) was equipped with S/G controls and piping, but no S/G, so it could be used in passenger service for power only. All units set up long hood forward. Lettered StLSW before mid-150s, Cotton Belt after. SP/T&NO did not have any RS-3s. Renumbered into 2800 series in the 1964 renumbering.
Thanks to http://espee.railfan.net for all of the info.
You can get a lot of Cotton Belt passenger train information by contacting the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis Historical and Technical Society, Inc. Ask if they still have newsletter copies for sale. You would need Newsletter Issue 40/41 for Winter 1996/Spring 1997. Virtually that entire newsletter (32 pages, magazine format) was devoted to the Cotton Belt's passenger service. Photos, maps, diagrams and company letters are included. Very informative and reasonably priced. Here is the address and phone number that they included: TRRA H&TS, Inc.; P. O. Box 1688,; St. Louis, Missouri 63188-1688. Phone 314-535-3101.
The Cotton Belt never extensively modernized its passenger equipment during the streamliner era. It preferred to keep things going as they were and began to lose passengers to competing lines. Cotton Belt passenger service ended on November 30, 1959 with the final run of #8 from Pine Bluff to East St. Louis.
There were only 10 streamlined cars on the Cotton Belt, the 10 coaches built by Pullman Standard in 1937. There were only nine passenger diesels on the Cotton Belt, so you can see by the time the 1950s rolled around there were very few Cotton Belt passenger trains to ride.
The Cotton Belt's St. Louis-Texas service was usually a single train, sometimes carrying through Memphis-Texas cars which were combined/split in Brinkley, Arkansas. But, there were time periods where separate trains ran between St. Louis-Texas and Memphis-Texas and there were times when there was no St. Louis-Texas service, just Memphis-Texas service.
Around 1904 the Cotton Belt operated a train called "The Texas Train" and "The St. Louis Train" between St. Louis and Waco, but beyond this the primary endpoints for Cotton Belt's Texas Service was St. Louis to Dallas and Ft. Worth.
Some train names that were used for this service include: Lone Star Special, Morning Lone Star, Evening Lone Star, Morning Star and the Cotton Belter.
The Cotton Belt was also a participant in Chicago-Texas train service around 1901 called "The Texas Train" (I'm not sure if this train was related to the St. Louis-Waco service of the same name). The train ran from Chicago to Thebes, Ill via the Chicago and Eastern Illinois, where the Cotton Belt took over for the run to Ft. Worth.
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