Any Fs Left?

[upjake]

Are there any active roads/shortlines or non-museum railroads that use a few old F units? The only one I know of is the Metro North FL9s (or are they retired now)?

[MJChittick]

Yes, matter of fact there are.

Canadian Pacific has 1 FP7, 3 FP9s and 1 F9B.

Kansas City Southern has 3 FP9s and 1 F9B

Norfolk Southern has 2 F9PHs and 2 F7Bs.

Additionally, both Union Pacific and Canadian National have E units on their roster.

I'll let you research the regionals and short lines yourself.  Follow this link to The Diesel Shop:

http://www.thedieselshop.us/

 

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Peoria & Western has a pair of ex-CN FP9's that regularly work in local freight service.

[aegrotatio]

 Virginia Railway Express has six F40 units (if that's what you mean).  Three are owned and three are leased.  The owned units are for sale.  All are to be replaced with new units within 24 months.

http://www.vre.org/about/equipment.htm

 

[DMUinCT]

The Metro North's retired FL-9, the ones paid for by the State of Connecticut, have retired to Tourist Train duty and are considered CONNDOT reserve.  The Nagatuck Railroad is operated by the Railroad Museum of New England, both Tourist Trains and light freight.  www.rmne.org 

As for the F40PH, many, many are still in service across America.  Boston's MBTA has 45 F40PH locomotive in a continuing rebuilding program.

[espeefoamer]

The Fillmore & Western has two F7s in service.

[mudchicken]

That's  the western Fillmore & Western with the F's. The eastern Fillmore & Western, the common carrier one, has two lonely ex-ATSF GP-20's in Nebraska.

[ClinchValleySD40]

Michigan Air Line in Walled Lake uses an F7 in regular dinner train and freight service.   Laid up with a mechanical issue at the moment.  They have a few others on a dead line that need some work, maybe someday.

 

See ya

Larry

[Rigby1]

Maine Eastern runs a couple of very pretty FL9's.

[aegrotatio]

 My apologies.  The F40s are clearly not the units you're looking for.

 

[Awesome!]

What about the famous warbonets schemes?

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Awesome!

What about the famous warbonets schemes?

None on F's that are still in service.

[potlatcher]

The Washington & Idaho Railroad that runs between Marshall, WA (near Spokane) and Wilson, WA (just across the state line from Moscow, ID) has two ex-CN FP-9's in its Marshall yard, one painted in the Southern Pacific's "black widow" scheme and the other in a more conservative grey and black scheme.  These two are owned by a private individual, who allows the W&I, in exchange for free storage of the units, to use them as needed on their freight trains.  I'm not sure the grey one has ever gone out on a revenue trip, but the SP look-alike gets plenty of use.

If you want more information, the W&I F-units are frequent topics of discussion on the Altamont Press discussion board.  W&I owner Stan Patterson sometimes answers questions on that list to help railfans know when & where they can see the trains in action.  You can also check out a couple videos on YouTube of the F in service.  Here's a couple examples (the first one is mine):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmaKhr2ULJk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_nJAxe-Ylc

Hope this helps,

Tom

[Beach Bill]

Carolina Southern, running out of Chadbourn, North Carolina.  

Bill

[Randy Stahl]

I have an original chicken wire F-3 .. does that count ? Its number is BAR 502

[Fireflite]

R.J. Corman Railroad Company has a pair of FP-9s they use on their My Old Kentucky Dinner Train.

Tom

[pamountainman]

 Gettysburg and Northern in Pennsylvania have 5 on it's roster - 2 F7A  -  2 FP9  -  1 F9B.

I have photographed the FP9 1751 in Algoma Central colors in revenue service in the last year or two.  The rest I have never seen.

[EMD F7A]

WARBONNET! You said the magic word! The California State Railroad Museum (in Old Sacramento) has a Santa Fe F7A/F3B set restored, in its backshops. The unit (now 347c) had work the warbonnet scheme, then the yellowbonnet scheme, and was subsequently restored back to its original warbonnet scheme as the demo locomotive when Santa Fe (and its other half haha) took to their roots and started using the red & silver scheme for their freight units, this was a few years ago. The locos are not on display currently. There's also a nicely running Western Pacific F cab there! Saw it run last month.

[hollisterjct.]

 Recently I saw am E or F unit in Crivitz, Wis. on the Escanaba and Lake Superior. It may have come from Wisconsin and Southern judging from the paint scheme. 

[nighthawk44]

The Seminole Gulf RR in southwest Florida has at least one that they use to power their dinner train. Seminole Gulf is a regional line made of 118 miles of trackage from CSX (nee ACL & SCL) back in the 1980's and is a working freight railroad.

Seminole Gulf Railway owns and operates over 100 miles of track in Florida from a connection with the national rail system at Arcadia between North Naples and between Oneco (Bradenton) and Sarasota. Seminole Gulf is the only freight railroad in Southwest Florida, hauling much of the region's building materials, newsprint, LP gas, plastics, sugar, stone, recycled materials, steel, and other commodities.

 

[Geared Steam]

At Niles Canyon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlgcPg4KoPw&feature=related

http://www.trainweb.org/wp918d/918_nilescanyon1.htm

[GTW155]

KCS has 3 that they use on their business train, and NS also has some.

GTW155

[Lyon_Wonder]

CSSHEGEWISCH

Awesome!

What about the famous warbonets schemes?

None on F's that are still in service.

 

Well, there’s ex-ATSF CF7s, though I guess most would not count them as Fs since they’re hood units even though they used to be F-units until ATSF rebuilt them in the 1970s.  A tourist road in Kentucky has a CF-7 still in ATSF yellowbonnet.  

[traindreamer]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, because it is breaking my heart. All of Metro-North's FL9s are now retired, and according to my colleagues, the last six that were stored as surplus in New Haven Ct are now allegedly on their way to Baltimore, where their trucks will be removed and fluids drained so that they can be dumped into deep water somewhere to be used as marine wildlife havens. A tragic waste of a valuable legacy. I understand that all of these units were recently rebuilt and in very serviceable condition. Anyone with more information about this, please tell me it ain't so. - PT

[Leo_Ames]

Metro-North recently sold FL9 2008 and two F10's to Frontier Industrial Corporation in Ohio and appear destined for scrap if some interested group doesn't intervene soon.

That leaves one FL9 (2012) and one F10 (413) on the property for Metro-North F units.

 Are these CDOT units that you're talking about? Seems to be that they had 6 when their time ended last year. Sure hope that isn't going to be their fate.

[traindreamer]

Yes, the CDOT units are what I'm talking about. I know about the 413 and I've heard about the 2012, but I'm pretty sure those are going to the NY Transit Museum for mere static display. It would be a good idea to save a couple in sevicable condition so that they could be used for special excursions. Just curious; Why do you hope that the CDOT units get dumped in the ocean?

[Dutchrailnut]

absolutly no truth to the rumor, the 6 CDOT units are shut down drained but totally ready to go in New Haven.

 No one will dump $120 000 a piece locomotives in Ocean

[Dakguy201]

The Boone & Scenic Valley has a '58 F9 that was built for the Canadian National.  It now sports C&NW colors and logos:

 

[firstbelt]

Adirondack Scenic has a few each of F and FL9 on their roster.  Not sure if they're all running.  Some are painted in NYC-inspired gray w/lightning stripe.  As mentioned previously, check out the Diesel Shop site.

Adirondack Scenic

[traindreamer]

Thank You JV - I had a feeling It was a lie. Do you know if CONDOT has any plans for them?