Southern Pacific F7 Diesel Units - Colour Scheme Query.

[John C. Hall]

I have recently bought an Athearn F7 A and B unit in daylight colours.  Does anyone know if any of SP's F units actually ran in these colours, and if so what numbers?

[espeefoamer]

The SP F7s never wore Daylight colors.They were delivered in Black Widow paint.Most of them got repainted into the gray and red scheme.Cotton belt had one FP7 painted Daylight, but this loco was 4 feet longer than a straight F7.

[kenneo]

There were preliminary plans to re-paint the passenger F's, passenger SD's and commute engines in Daylight Red/Orange/Black, but the change in color to the "Bloody-nose" Red and Gray for all locomotives and passenger equipment changed all of that with the single exception of the SSW FP7.  SP's E's were painted in Daylight as were the PA's.  I am not aware of any FP's or F's painted that way, but if any were, I am sure that they would have come from La Grange that way. 

[SSW9389]

Cotton Belt's only FP7 #306 was repainted to the gray and scarlet in 1959. It served in passenger service on the Cotton Belt until November 30, 1959 when all Cotton Belt passenger service ended. The locomotive was then leased to Southern Pacific in January 1960 as the SP #6462. It served in commuter service from San Francisco to San Jose. It was retired in 1972.

There are color photos of the #306 in Steve Goen's Cotton Belt Color Pictorial. 

 

[jimrice4449]

Another interesting SSW Daylight variation was their sole psgr GP-7which was the only Geep to be painted in Daylight colors

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

SSW's FP7 and passenger GP7 served as back-ups to PA1's 300-301, which were also in Daylight colors and were the primarily power for Cotton Belt's passenger trains, such as they were.

[SSW9389]

This statement is true eventually in the history of Cotton Belt passenger trains, but not initially. The Cotton Belt rostered nine passenger diesels, ten if you count the RS-3 with steam lines, but without a steam generator. The GP7 was intially purchased to power trains #201 and #202 a turnaround train from Shreveport to Lewisville, Arkansas. That train connected with mainline trains #1 & #2 that would have been powered by the PA-1s. The FP7 was intially purchased to power trains #101 and #102 from Mt. Pleasant, TEXAS to Waco, TEXAS. Again these trains connected with mainline trains. The trains the FP7 and GP7 were purchased for soon went away as Cotton Belt extensively cut its passenger trains in the early 1950s. The RS-3 units were initially used on trains #1 & #2 and #5 & #6 to and from Dallas.

Cotton Belt had an aggressive train off program that killed off its passenger trains by November 30, 1959. At that time only the two PA-1s and the FP7 were in passenger service and one of the PA-1s was a standby and used in freight service from Pine Bluff to Memphis.  

Ed Cooper

Cotton Belt Rail Historical Society 

 

 

 

SSW's FP7 and passenger GP7 served as back-ups to PA1's 300-301, which were also in Daylight colors and were the primarily power for Cotton Belt's passenger trains, such as they were.