B & O PAs ?

[Deggesty]

I checked Curt Tillotson’s book on Southern Diesels and it said that Southern bought six PA’s in 53 and traded them in 65. It also said that they were used mostly in service west of the Appalachians and were assigned to the NO&NE.

That the Southern assigned engines to a particular subsidiary did not mean that they were limited to that subsidiary–or even ran on that subsidiary.

I did not see the Tennesean often when I was in Bristol from 1954 on (its timing interfered with college)–but every time I saw it, it had PA’s until the Southern engines began running through from Washington to Memphis, Birmingham, and New Orleans–and I saw only EMD products on the Pelican and Birmingham Special.

[kgbw49]

Here you go, Mr. Deggesty! They are quite the grand conveyance!

[guetem1]

thanks for the snap of the Southern PA’s, what a treat! I had never seen them before

[Buslist]

I barely remember the NKP “Bluebird” PA’s, but Erie/EL PA’s are more firmly etched in my mind. I only saw them in freight service so it was a surprise to me when I read JDI’s article in TRAINS and found out that PA’s were passenger power.

The EL PAs would often arrive in Chicago in the AM after handling an overnight passenger, then would run a transfer job over to Clearing before returning to handle the passenger train going east. They could fairly reliably be seen at Hayford heading into Clearing around 10A in the early 60s.