According to Wikipedia, GM began producing F7s in February 1949. The F3 and F7 were both rated at 1,500 horsepower, and while Wikipedia says the F7 had 20 percent higher tractive effort than the F3, that doesn’t show up on the data cards. Despite yesterday’s question about buyer’s remorse, I suspect railroads just bought the latest locomotives available without worrying too much about the designations. However, instead of stepping up from F3 to F4, F5, F6, and F7, GM leapt from F3 to F7. This was mainly because the E locomotive being made in early 1949 was an E7.

This card is signed by Ben Dedek.

F7 production may have begun in February 1949, and according to a Clinchfield history site, locomotive 800 was an F3 built in 1948. Yet this card clearly says it was an F7. However, the history site adds that the locomotive was later rebuilt to F7 standards, so perhaps that’s when this card was made. Continue reading →

By 1949, railroads had bought so many F3s that Trains magazine editor David P. Morgan suggested that railroaders then were “the age of the F3.” He didn’t know that the F7, which would be introduced in 1949, would greatly outsell the F3.

This card is signed by Ben Dedek.

Rather than buy any FT locomotives, Pennsylvania experimented with with turbine-powered locomotives, duplex drives, and other steam innovations. When these had little or no success, PRR jumped on the Diesel bandwagon, buying 120 F3s, more than any other railroad except Union Pacific and Southern Pacific (which also hadn’t bought any FTs). The first four-unit set, numbered 9500-9503, was delivered in July 1947, while the four-unit set shown in the painting was delivered two months later.

I don’t see a signature but this looks like Ben Dedek’s work.

In October 1947 Bangor and Aroostook received the first of its F3s. The railroad ordered four three-unit A-B-A sets.

Ben Dedek’s signature is barely discernible in the lower left corner of the painting on this card.

GM delivered six three-unit F3s to Chicago Great Western in October 1947. Later, CGW purchased six more B units to make them into four-unit sets. In all, it owned 33 A units and 16 B units, including one three-unit set used for passenger service.

No signature is visible on this card.

In October 1947, the Soo Line received the first of five two-unit sets of F3s. Its then-subsidiary Wisconsin Central also bought three three-unit sets.

This poster version of the same painting shows Ben Dedek’s signature in the lower left corner. Dedek was careless to have placed the signature where it would have been cropped out from the data card. Click image for a larger view.

This poster shows more of the painting on which the data card was based. “Poster” is the term used by Greg Palumbo for framable prints of the paintings. I’m not exactly sure how big they are, but they are bigger than the data cards while smaller than the original paintings. Because they are taller (relative to the width) than the data cards they show some features that are cropped out of the cards, such as, this case, the artist’s signature.

This card is signed by Ben Dedek.

Unlike some of the paintings, this one makes clear how Canadian National numbered each of the locomotives in this three-unit set. Rather than number them 9000 A, B, and C, it numbered them 9000, 9001, and 9002. CN only bought two three-unit F3s and they were delivered in May 1948.

This card is signed by Ben Dedek.

The individual units Canadian National subsidiary Grand Trunk Western’s F3 are also separately numbered on this card. The railroad bought eleven two-unit sets whose numbers immediately followed those of CN’s three-unit sets. The first five sets were delivered in May 1948, and the remainder in September 1948.

About 50 different railroads purchased F3 locomotives, plus several more if you count various subsidiaries such as Wisconsin Central separate from the Soo Line or International & Great Northern separate from Missouri Pacific. Of course, the locomotive’s success was partly due to pent-up demand resulting from slow locomotive production during the war but it was also because of some railroads that hadn’t purchased FTs were catching up on Dieselization.

This card is signed by Ben Dedek.

In December 1946 GM delivered the first of 27 F3 units, mostly A units, to the Monon Railroad, which was trying to quickly Dieselize. Although number 51 was the first unit delivered, Monon also bought GM’s second F3 demonstrator, which included one of the B units from the first demonstrator. Continue reading →

A Diesel-electric locomotive consists of a Diesel engine that turns an electrical generator to produce electricity that powers electrical motors to the wheels. In 1945, General Motors had developed a generator capable of upping the FT’s power from 1,350 horsepower to 1,500 and it redesigned the locomotive interior to fit the new generator. However, after having built a four-unit demonstrator in July 1945, the company realized the new generator was not quite ready for mass production. Instead, it offered a locomotive with the new internal layout but the old generator, which it called the F2.

This card is unsigned but is probably by Ben Dedek.

Although nine railroads bought F2s, I have data cards for just two of them. First, the Atlantic and East Carolina Railway, a short line that was eventually absorbed by the Southern, bought two F2s, the one on this data card and sister 401. These were among the first F2s to be built and were delivered in July 1946. Continue reading →

GM built a demonstrator E7, but it was less to demonstrate the E7 itself than to show off the Train of Tomorrow. Of course, by stimulating interest in riding passenger trains, GM hoped to stimulate sales of its locomotives, but it didn’t build the demonstrator E7 until April 1947, more than two years after it delivered its first E7 to the Alton Route.

GM built an E7 locomotive specifically to take the Train of Tomorrow on a tour of the nation. Click image to download a 3.5-MB PDF of a press packet about the train. Click here for a larger view of the above photo. Source: Palumbo.

GM President Harlow Curtice described the Train of Tomorrow as a concept train the same way the company built concept cars. Although the four cars of the train were built by Pullman, GM styling went through its usual process of model building before having the train itself built. Greg Palumbo provided me with some photos of some of these models that differ from the final train in several ways. Continue reading →