EMD F Units

[Anonymous]

How many 1960 and prior Class 1 railroads never owned F units? I can think of 5... VGN, N&W, NKP, IC and GTW. Are there any more? Don Corbin

[Anonymous]

GTW had F-3As 9006-9027.

[CShaveRR]

D&H, GBW, Ann Arbor, DT&I, Rutland...

[Anonymous]

I don't think these were Class 1's. Maybe D&H.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, I wasn't aware GTW had any. gdc

[Anonymous]

By the pre-deregulation official definition of Class 1 railroads,ALL of the roads listed in the previous post qualified.
Even the New York,Ontario,& Western was a Class 1(they owned F units). It was a matter of miles of trackage owned.

[cprted]

Pacific Great Eastern

[Anonymous]

While N&W never bought any F units new it ended up owning quite a few through its mergers. And many of them were repainted into N&W.

L&NE, and L&HR did not own F units. I don't think that SP&S owned any (can someone answer that for sure?) Same for the Grand Trunk, I don't think that they owned F units, but they had quite a few run throughs from parent CN.

New Haven partially qualifies. They did not own F units, but they did own the modified FL9s.

[Anonymous]

The original question was directed at class 1 roads prior to 1960. That took into consideration some roads acquired them via merger after 1960 as did N&W. One of the respondants advised that GTW did have aa few F3's. I was in a quandry as well as to whether to include NH because of the FL9, but since the designation was "F" I said they did (with an asterisk). Thanks for your response.

[mmathu]

> I don't think these were Class 1's. Maybe D&H.

GBW was indeed Class 1 from 1918-1975; and they never had EMD locos on their roster.

[Anonymous]

>I don't think that SP&S owned any (can
>someone answer that for sure?)

I can answer that. Yes, SP&S did own F units. 3 F3As and 4 F7As for passenger service. Plus 1 E7A, though that doesn't count.....

What about Texas & Pacific??? GM&O?

[CShaveRR]

Thanks for the support. The determining factor wasn't mileage, but revenues (it still is). All I had to do was remember which railroads were listed in Robert G. Lewis' Handbook of American Railroads (1956), which documented all of the Class 1 railroads. Had I actually opened the book, I might have come up with a few more.

[Anonymous]

I was not referring to Grand Trunk and Western, I said Grand Trunk. GTW is in Michigan, GT was in New England. They were (are?) separate railroads, although both were owned by Canadian National. I believe that Grand Trunk only owned GPs and RSs.

[Anonymous]

Thanks again for your response!

[alangj]

FYI, Don Ball Jr.'s book "America's Colorful Railroads" has a photo (on page 118) of a nicely-matched pair of "...two new phase IV F-3s..." of the Grand Trunk Western taken in South Bend IN in February of 1949. One is the 9020, but I can't quite make out the number on the side of the second unit (9023???).

Alan

[Anonymous]

How about lake Superior & Ishpeming? They were a class one back then and never owned an EMD to this day. And the GM&O had F3's and F7's

[Anonymous]

I remember seeing a picture of an IC train with an F-unit leading.

[Anonymous]

They may have been GM&O heritage or maybe an E unit. They had a ton of them. IC never bought any F units. gdc

[Anonymous]

The Elgin, Joliet & Eastern, a class one until recently, never owned a F-unit, either.

Also, I could be mistaken about this, but I don't seem to recall the Florida East Coast ever having F-units. They were one of the first railroads to purchase E-units, but freight was handled by postwar BL-2's and geeps.

[CShaveRR]

Sorry...Florida East Coast had F3s (eight A units, four B units) and FP7s (five units).

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Carl, I learned something new about the FEC. So let me me subtract the FEC from my list and add the Pittsburgh and West Virginia.

[Anonymous]

ICG repainted three ex GM&O F3's in orange and white. Also the EJ&E did have a set of baldwin sharks but not for very long. Now the EJ&E is rebuilding their SD's with computers on board calling them SD38-3's.

[Anonymous]

What I was trying to ask was how many Class 1's prior to 1960 never bought any F units new. I guess the question wasn't too clear. A lot of roads got them through merger. Thanks for your response.

[Anonymous]

I have a question concerning the headlights on the later F7's. What was the diameter of the fixture?

[enr2099]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cprted

Pacific Great Eastern

Actually PGE had two F-units. Ex-CN FP7A's were supposed to be put in service but never were.

[Anonymous]

The SP had quite a number of F-3 and F-7 A and B units in three different paint schemes, Daylight, Black Widow and the ugly Bloody Nose. The California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento is in the process of rebuilding an F-7 and it's going to have the Black Widow paint. I can't wait!!!!!!! [:D][:D]


I think I need to learn to read a little closer. sorry

[swabrian]

Yes, the T&P had a large fleet of F-units.