I just got a new set of MTH F3s for my California Zehpyr train. These are really nice, MTH did a great job on these.
MTH has PA (passenger announcements) that are specific to the California Zephyr. I had no idea. But was amazed I when I heard it. You hit F4 to luanch the annoucments sequence.
I have 10 BLI Zephyr cars. I got the 8 car set from Tom White here 2 years ago. And I just got 2 new car to add to the set.
I like the F3s so much, that now I want to get an additional B unit.
If I could bring myself to buy a Kato CZ set these’d be on point, I might indulge the thought soon. as my Olympia Zephyr needs a diner car, and the Q wasn’t so picky about car assignments in the later years.
D&RGW pulled the CZ with F3ABBA sets until they were retired at the end of 1965. I have a silent set of Genesis F3ABBA’s in single stripe for my CZ. ABB sets were typical of the RGZ of course!
Hey Tom how’s it going. Ya I only had the other D&RGW F7s but they are for my Ski Train. So I’ve been keeping the BLI cars I got from you safe, until I find out that MTH came out with their new F3s. I’ve been dying to run this train for a long time now.
Michael … You are welcome. Again, I enjoyed seeing your video.
Of course, the train travled on 3 railroads on its daily trip.
CB&Q … Chicago - Denver
D&RGW … Denver - Salt Lake City
WP … Salt Lake City - Oakland
Here is the train on my layout. (Railfans wonder why it has an extra baggage car). …
Initally, CBQ had three ABA sets of F3’s assigned to the CZ. The units had solid draw bars instead of couplers, and therefore they were always ABA sets while assigned to the CZ. That did not last long, and those F3’s were changed to be freight units including repainting to the CB&Q freight scheme… … From the early 1950’s until about 1970, the train was hauled with E units, and E7’s were most common. … My train has BLI sound equiped E7’s.
There are certainly lots of exceptions to the standard post 1952 twelve car consist, especially in the 1960’s when the cars in the train were influenced by seasonal fluctuations and there were numerous guest foreign passenger cars - usually at the end of the train just ahead of the Dome-obs, including UP, NYC, Pennsy, GN, NP etc. cars. D&RGW often added their own Prospector series cars for special runs at the front end just behind the baggage car - usually the 52 seat chair cars and/or dome-chair cars. It wasn’t unusual to see the CB&Q Havelock baggage car substituted for the CZ Budd baggage too.
Power varied as Heartland pointed out with the change from CB&Q F3’s switching to E7 and E8’s in the 50’s thru the end of the train.
The D&RGW used ABA sets of PA’s from inception in 1949 but quickly substituted one of the power sets with an F3ABBA set, which was black with yellow stripes at the start. From about 1951-1958, the D&RGW pulled the CZ with one ABA PA set and one ABBA F3 set, while the other ABA PA set was split up and used on secondary trains. The last gasp of PA’s in CZ service was around 1958, after which the CZ was pulled only by F3’s until they were retired and traded in in January 1966 to EMD. From that date, F7’s and F9’s pulled the silver lady thru the Rockies until discontinuance.
The WP, from what I understand, also used F3’s at first, but those were ABB sets rather than ABA sets. In the early 1950’s WP purchased a small number of FP7A’s which esentially replaced the F3A’s - so the WP pulled the CZ with FP7A’s followed by 2 B units from a mixed pool of F3B’s and a couple F7B’s.
I thought the Q F3’s maintained their passenger scheme for a short while longer while in freight service. I think they did so I could have all of my Q F’s running together on point of a freight.
I don’t know CB&Q very well but I’d wager those draw-bar’s didn’t last long after the F3’s were removed from passenger service and put onto freight trains. D&RGW had draw-barred FT"s and those were converted to couplers too.
