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In Minnesota, F units scrapped, saved
Unfortunately, today is December 15 and the Minnesota Zephyr F units are still on blocks in Stillwater, MN. Checked on them last night and no activity to move them.
A terrible shame for the ones that were scrapped. The styling is timeless. The EMD E and F units will always be my favorite diesels. We will never see their like again.
It’s terrible that they couldn’t be saved. Everyone has an A unit, but how many B units do you see preserved? Not many.
It’s always nice to see for F units saved, but seems like people only save the A units. Now we lost another 3 B units that could have been saved. I think a perfect setup for Fs is A-B-A or A-B-B-A, but with no Bs, that can’t happen.
Sad sight to look at. Wish they could have been preserved.
It would have been nice if they’d offered those Bs for sale for scrap value. Could they have been moved on their own wheels?
The usefulness of B units is rather limited. You need at least one A unit to make them useful, and if your acquisition budget only allows for the purchase of one diesel, guess who’s going to win.
Ross Stone,
I admire now much more than when I hired out, the F’s A-unit conformation, tho’ I wonder what esthetic benefit derives from repeating the conformation of an A-unit"s butt end 50, or so, feet at a unit, until another A-unit is a multipliier to them.
For Mr. Petit:
We’re sneaking up on Christmas week. Lots of things slow down this time of year; don’t give up until after the first of the year!
Did they even offer the Erie Mining B units for sale or donation before deciding to scrap thrm? I bet Ed might have been interested in them. As to the B units not being very useful they would have made great parts donors. As the mechanical and allot of the body parts could have been used to save or upgrade an A unit, especially mechanically do to being F9 models. Just think of the classic car and truck world, allot of 4 door sedans and long bed trucks our salvaged for parts, mechanical and body, to keep the more popular 2 door cars and short bed trucks existing and running.
The promised day of removal of the F units from Stillwater, MN was 15 December. This has been going on for years and I don’t expect it to end soon.
It is my understanding that the B units were offered for sale as well with no takers. The major issue with them is that the wheel profile was so far gone no railroad would allow them to move over their property. The A units have enough profile left so they can move on their own wheels. Trucking a locomotive is not cheap.
When was the last time any of you saw an E8B or an E9B ? It’s been a good 40 years for me. Amtrak had some on the Floridian back in their “rainbow” era.
I know they were only B units, but it would’ve been nice to save one or two. Something I’ve been wondering about tho. With the classic style of the E’s and F’s, why doesn’t EMD revive the carbody but with all the new technology, prime mover, trucks and whatever else, then market them to Amtrak and the commuter agencies around the country. They’d be way more stylish than these flat nosed boxes that are being sold these days. How cool would that be to see brand new E units sailing down the tracks!
Kelley Hogan,
Amtrak actually did try to do just that back in the seventies. They wanted to build a new generation of E units called the E10. EMD had thrown away some machine pattern that was critical for this concept so it never happened. I think that is when they got the F 40 instead. The F 40 was a GP-40 with a cowl on it. I’m going on memory so someone may correct me on that however.
I’m a little surprised 4210 (pictured) wasn’t given to the LSRM, they’d have a matching A-B-A set of Erie Mining… It also would have been nice if the Minnesota Zephyr units stayed in Minnesota, but unfortunately that likely won’t happen since they’ll be moved eventually.
Illinois Railway Museum could have used one or more of those Bs for parts for their various F units. Body panels if nothing else.
It’s funny how these B units sat for many years and all of a sudden had to be scraped. And in the middle of winter. It would of been nice if they were offered for sale beforehand.
The Hoyt Lakes - Taconite Harbor line was also used in the mid - 2000’s for two days of excursions sponsored by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth. Quite a thrill going across the ore docks in Taconite Harbor.