Peoria & Western has some ex-CN FP9's that it uses in freight service. Metro-North may have some FL9's and ex-C&NW F7A's in service on some branches on the New Haven line and as relief power.
Carolina Southern has a couple -- an A and a B, the latter of which is ex-CN. Also a few A's in storage.
The road to to success is always under construction. _____________________________________________________________________________ When the going gets tough, the tough use duct tape.
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Well I know there are some grain elevators that use CF7's, but not any railroads that use actual F7's. It really surprised me that the Class 1's got rid of their F's it seems like the short lines and regionals would get rid of them first. Cause they have lots of switching to do. But they did. Hay, RJ Corman uses 2 F's (7's I think) Also NS uses 2 F's of some sort...
Sorry but how hard is correct spelling and punctuation? Don't want to take offence and sound like the grammar police but spelling and punctuation is easy, even the dim kids at my school got it.
OT- Odd theres all that computer script in the post, anyone know how to remove it?
ML
GDRMCo Normal 0 false false false EN-AU X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} Well I know there are some grain elevators that use CF7's, but not any railroads that use actual F7's. It really surprised me that the Class 1's got rid of their F's it seems like the short lines and regionals would get rid of them first. Cause they have lots of switching to do. But they did. Hay, RJ Corman uses 2 F's (7's I think) Also NS uses 2 F's of some sort... Sorry but how hard is correct spelling and punctuation? Don't want to take offence and sound like the grammar police but spelling and punctuation is easy, even the dim kids at my school got it. OT- Odd theres all that computer script in the post, anyone know how to remove it?
You missed one--it should be "Hey, RJ Corman...." (unless he is speaking of fodder, as in "hay, fodder, straw's cheaper").
Also, the last line I quoted is better this way--"Odd, there's all that computer script in the post; does anyone know how to remove it?"
I'm sorry, but I have no idea as to how to remove it, so I cannot help you there.
Yes, spelling and punctuation are easy when you are familiar with good writing.
Johnny
GDRMCo Didn't miss it the first time but I accidentally hit back on the browser and lost the changes. When I did the reply again I missed it, woops.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Iowa Northern has 2 F40's in almost every day use.
GDRMCoIt could, but then again it depends on what side of the ditch you're from.
bubbajustinWell, I know there are some grain elavators that use CF7'S, but not any railroads that use actuall F7's. It really suprised me that the class1's got rid of there F's it seems like the short line and reginols would get rid of them first. Cause thay have lot's of switching to do. But thay did. Hay, RJ Coreman uses 2 F's (7's I think) Also NS uses 2 F's of some sort...
Of course the class one's retired their F units many years before you were born!
The short lines and regionals that rostered F units got them secondhand from the Class 1's so I don't understand your posting ...
Several of the bigger railroads roster small numbers of rebuilt F units for hauling business and special event trains..
"I Often Dream of Trains"-From the Album of the Same Name by Robyn Hitchcock
mudchicken Iowa Northern has 2 F40's in almost every day use.
But does an F40PH count as an "F unit"? After all it's a Cowled roadswitcher frame not a "covered wagon"...
LTV has used some of it's former Erie Mining F9's in recent years on occassionaly runs hauling "fines" (broken taconite pellets), most recently in 2008 I believe, but they haven't been used in everyday service since earlier this decade.
One thing to recall is that GM-EMD starting in maybe the late fifties allowed railroads to "trade in" their older engines as part of the deal in getting new ones, so many first generation FT's and F's were traded in on new GP's with trucks and some other parts being reused. In the sixties GE would take any engine in trade (whether they could use the parts or not) which helped them get business.
carnej1 mudchicken Iowa Northern has 2 F40's in almost every day use. But does an F40PH count as an "F unit"? After all it's a Cowled roadswitcher frame not a "covered wagon"...
upjakeThat is what makes it so nice that these tourist trains and museums have repainted and preserved some F units. For me and I would bet even many non-train fans the 'covered wagons' bring up fond memories of the past. The 'RJ Corman' FP7s are great. Oh just one other question. As railroads bumped up to newer diesels in the 60s, was it ever sometimes common for some Fs to be kept for yard switching or other light work?
What to do with its old F units led Santa Fe to begin rebuilding them into CF7's beginning with 2649 in 1970. Santa Fe was in an unusual situation since its road fleet had a higher percentage of F units than most other Class 1's and trading them in on GP38's to work local freights was not viewed at the time as a smart financial move.
The Escanaba and Lake Superior still uses an F unit in freight service. It hasn't been repainted from its WSOR colors.
http://tr.youtube.com/watch?v=iMCFnUBBbcY
bubbajustin carnej1 mudchicken Iowa Northern has 2 F40's in almost every day use. But does an F40PH count as an "F unit"? After all it's a Cowled roadswitcher frame not a "covered wagon"... I would count that as an F. A bit boxeir on the front end, but that's ok. I here that it is real hard to see backward out of the locomotives. Especially with 2 or three cabless booster's trailing behind.
Not a problem with an F40 as there are no B units, it's a GP40-2 wearing a streamlined cowl after all...
CSSHEGEWISCH Metro-North may have some FL9's and ex-C&NW F7A's in service on some branches on the New Haven line and as relief power.
Metro-North may have some FL9's and ex-C&NW F7A's in service on some branches on the New Haven line and as relief power.
Aren't the FL9's getting phased out by those new locomotives that look like a cross between an SD45, and a GP40? Ummmmmm..... Ohhhh What are thay called.... ummm... Built by Brookville Equipment Corporaton... Well, I can't think of the name... BL102 maby...no defanatley not that. That's the crummy locomotive nobody lliked before the Geep. Well I can't think of it.
Escapes me too, but the FL9s were phased out by the dual service Genesis units.
Thanks for the info. I should have known that...
The Southern RR of NJ has a couple of F units that would occasionally make the trip from Salem to Swedesboro NJ. Don't know if they've run recently - might just be sitting in the weeds in Salem.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
One that at last report still is: The Gettysburg Northern out of Gettysburg, Pa. with two F-units.
Goderich-Exeter used to run ex-CN FP9A's in service with their geeps but the F units are out of commission right now. This is according the Canadian railfans bible, the Canadian Trackside Guide 2009. The F's, nos. 1400 and 1401, were originally brought to the GEXR to power the snowploughs. The Locomotive special issue of 2007 covered their snowplough operation.
I would not call Norfolk Southern business trains tourist operations, and of course NS has its F-units (A-B-B-A) for such trains. They run pretty regularly.
In a similar vein, there is an IC (still painted IC, I think, not CN) E-8 that pulls business trains.
The original F units (and E units for that matter) were almost all purchased by major railroads in the late forties and fifties. There were good reasons for this. The new road diesels were expensive and the majors were the ones with the money and cash flow to pay for them. Diesel technology developed pretty fast during those early years and by the time the F9 and E8 came along these units were quite efficient at moving freight and passengers in over the road operations. But they made horrible switchers due to the poor visibility, especially to the rear. Even an A-B-B-A lashup was a pain for switching operations but it did help avoid the hassle of turning the power at the end of a run. But once the road switcher design came into fashion the railroads had a locomotive that could do it all, freight, passenger and switching.
It was not easy to convert an E or F unit into a road switcher because the body structure that shrouded the internal components provided structural support, unlike the heavy frame of a road switcher. Only the Santa Fe and a very few other roads tried it. So, as these units aged they weren't very useful to move down to branchline service because they made such problematic switchers. Similarly, selling the units to short lines or branch lines had limited appeal. By the time these lines could afford diesels (even used ones) they wanted road switchers or units like GE's 44 tonner rather than old F units from the major roads.
Thus, trade-in programs became immensely popular. The GP7 was essentially the guts of an F7 in a roadswitcher car body as was the GP9 the guts of an F9 in a similar body. So it was no trouble for GM to take these units as trade-ins, overhaul the prime mover, electrical gear, trucks and traction motors and end up with essentially a new much more useful unit at a fraction of the cost of a conventional new unit.
Will we ever see similar "covered wagon" designs regain popularity? Only in long haul passenger or freight service and then the cowl will probably be non structural as in the F40 unit and its derivatives, or the new units built for Amtrak. Making the cowl nonstructural simply makes maintenance so much easier that there are few reasons not to build units that way.
Still, there is something about a brace of covered wagons in a snappy paint job that the newer units just can't match in appearance, especially when pulling a string of lightweight cars from the age of the streamliners. Such beautiful trains. The new Superliners pale in comparison.
I would have to try and find the info for these pics to give an exact date, but it was about a year and a half ago, that I spotted this F unit ( 9, I believe). It was stopped just outside of Moscow, ID almost on the Washington border.
Needless to say the Black Widow paint caught my eye, it has MRLX reporting marks, which as I recall, are for Rail America (Not Montana Rail Link). When I did some research, I found that this was an ex-Via Rail unit, if my memory still serves me well. Still working in Revenue service, earning her keep.
Edit: It is a Mid America Rail Car Leasing unit, not Rail America. I also was able find a little more info, this unit was originally built for CN, then went to Via.
Doug
May your flanges always stay BETWEEN the rails
Cape May Seashore Lines, operator of the former Pennsylvania-Reading
Seashore Lines 'Cape May Branch' in Cape May County, NJ has on lease
from The United Railroad Historical Society, two ex- C&NW F7s. They
were painted and correctly numbered to resemble Lehigh Valley units.
They alternate with an original PRR GP9, that has been perfectly
restored to its 'as delivered' condition. It is still numbered 7000, the same
number it had on 'day one' with the Pennsylvania Railroad. Throughout its life, the number has
remained 7000.
I'm surprised the Reading Technical & Historical Society hasn't 'jumped in' with their original,
mint condition Reading FP7s. They also have one awaiting (?) restoration.
jckid1934
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