F units

[NW Modeling List]

--- On Fri, 10/17/08, NW Modeling List <nw-modeling-list at nwhs.org> wrote:


> From: NW Modeling List <nw-modeling-list at nwhs.org>

> Subject: Re: F units

> To: "NW Modeling List" <nw-modeling-list at nwhs.org>

> Date: Friday, October 17, 2008, 4:37 PM

> Hi Jim: The N&W inherited 103 F7A and 2 F7B units from

> the Wabash. The very last of these to be retired were the

> GMD (Canada) built units retired in 1979. Road numbers for

> the As were 3611to 3726 which were renumbered by simply

> adding a 3 in front of the WAB road number. Thus 3611 was ex

> WAB 611 (although it was delivered as 1101). The 2 F7Bs were

> N&W 3606 and 3608, ex WAB 606 and 608, nee WAB 1106B and

> 1108B. All the F7As had oscillating red and white lights in

> the upper headlight casing and a standard headllight in the

> door mounted headlight casing. They seemed to have a three

> chime horn on the roof over the engineers side and a single

> rear facing honker on the firemans side. Paint schemes were

> interesting. Many of the units retained the dark blue lower

> body with Wabash gray upper bodies extending out over the

> nose and curving around the bottom of the upper headlight

> casing. Lettering and heralds were in yellow and consisted

> of the "hamburger" logo on the nose, NORFOLK AND 

>  WESTERN, followed by the road number then another

> "hamburger" centered in the lower panel on the

> side of the carbody. Many later were painted solid blue with

> similar lettering and I know I saw some painted black with

> similar lettering in the late sixties. Ten F7As were leased

> to the Central of New Jersey in 11/67 and I did see one of

> these with a quick and dirty relettering job as CNJ planned

> to renumber the units 20 to 29. The one unit that CNJ

> relettered was relettered back into it's N&W

> markings and number and none of the others were ever

> relettered. All ten units remained on CNJ until they were

> retired. The twenty units which were manufactured in Canada

> mostly remained on the Canadian side of the border due to

> customs regulations. The rest of the units wandered the

> system, mostly on former WAB and NKP lines. How much they

> penetrated to the former N&W lines is unknown to me.

> However, I did see ex NKP GP30s on shifters and local

> freights in the Bluefield WV area in the ear

>  ly 80s so I suppose they may have wandered out towards

> Roanoke and Tidewater on a rare occasion. Dan Mulhearn

> 

> Dan and Nina Mulhearn; Pipestem WV


===========================

Great info. I can add that prior to the mid 1970s, hardly any ex-Wabash or ex-NKP units ever wandered onto "old" N&W rails (VA/WV) in mainline service. Probably one factor might have been the lack of dynamic brakes on the merger units. I never saw any (but I was only there certain times of the year from late 50s until the mid 1970s).

In the mid 1970s (1975 or later) you began to see some merger inherited units as well as foreign pool power.

About the same time, some of the merger inherited cabooses started to show up as well. I'm not sure if the two were related but that is the way it was .

All based on my observations from my grandparent's porch in Williamson. ;-)

Mark Peele
Catonsville, MD