Historic locomotive added to Frisco's Museum of the American Railroad

Now everyone's going to want one...

Rusty

Always did like the looks of the CF7's--- Glad to see that 2 of them have been saved.

Hats off to the scrap man how relized it should be saved.

 An donated it to a museum.

Yeah, a lot of people think that all scrappers are scumbags, and would sell their own mother for scrap if she were made of metal. Good to see that there are a few who put historical significance above the almighty dollar.

I didn't see any mention of a scrap dealer and I don't think Martin Marietta operates any.

As I read the article, it was the efforts of the cement plant operator (TXI which was merged in to MM) and BNSF that preserved the locomotive.

Rusty

Nice story.  Interesting loco with a good look to it - rather complex and industrial.

This is actually the 3rd locomotive donated to that group by TXI. The first locomotive donated was an Alco RSD1. This was a NYS&W Alco RS1 that was requisitioned by the Army during WWll. It was converted to RSD trucks and sent overseas. After the war, it was returned to the US. When I worked at TXI in the 80's, I made the plant management and corp. management aware of the need to preserve the Alco when it was retired. Many years later, they did indeed donate the Alco for preservation. I guess that got the ball rolling for eventual donation of the 2 CF7's.

 I am glad to see all three have been donated now.

Rusty, my read on the article was that the scrapper brought the retired engines to the attention of the museum and the museum and the plant worked out the transfer.  Why the scrapper considered their historical significance over the cash value.....it's not stated (he could be a foamer). Do museums award finders fees?

Can they convert it back to an F7 in warbonnet paint?

Of course the article doesn't go into financial details, but many of these transactions are tax-driven. "Donations" often mean tax writeoffs for the donor, so there's some economic incentive to do this. In addition, it's likely that the scrapper got something out of the deal from one of the involved parties.

They've already got one of those. Maybe they could convert it to an ALco PA - that wouldn't be any more difficult.

It would be cheaper to build one from scratch nowadays...

Rusty

They also already have an Alco PA. The "second one" removed from Mexico at the same time Doyle McCormack got his, i.e. both Pas came back to the U.S. together.

The historical significance of the CF7 can't be overlooked. Santa Fe's shops are/were nearby in Cleburne, Tx (near Arlington) which is where these locomotives were converted. Santa Fe saved a ton of money by converting the F-units rather than trading them in on Geeps. The first units had the round roofs from their F-unit heritage as opposed to the boxy "Topeka Cabs" that came later. Some of the early F-units also had roll-up windows which made it into the "round top" CF7's. Every time the subject of a new diesel to produce comes up, the CF7 makes the list. There are STILL several CF7's in service on branch line and in industrial operations. I'm in for one if it's ever produced. You listening, MTH?

Anything BUT the WB!

Rusty

As Matt notes this was a unique locomative of a sizable class and an outstanding example of what a railroad was capable of doing in their own shops.  Below is a link to a wikipedia article on this locomotive.  Pat B.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CF7

You got M. C. Frog from a cornerstone of an old building?

Did they get the BOX with the engine?

The box it came in looked an awful lot like this...

(It was actually the 212L)

Rusty

Yep. The cab is boxy. By the way, Santa Fe budgeted the conversion at $60K/locomotive but accomplished it at $40K/locomotive. They ended up saving close to $30,000,000 doing the conversion/engine rebuild as opposed to trading them in for new ones.

Too bad ATSF did not make a CF7B unit.

I took a our of those shops once.  They were into the last CF's and redoing the GP7 and 9's.  Amazing place.  Seems NS is the only railroad with shops which can do rebuilds.

Seeing that part of the idea was to take a locomotive not well suited for switching into one that was, that would have been an unnecessary expense. 

Besides, it only would've looked like a shortened GP7/9B.

Rusty

Before they were sold off or scrapped, a large number of the B-units were used as booster power on mainlines. They were often in their all-too-familiar place between units with cabs at either end (often between pairs of CF7's). The CF7's were more than capable of long-haul work given their F-unit underpinnings.

When I used to ride the TX CHIEF and Amtrak LONE STAR, I did see many F b units as boosters.  And the CF7 were used like GP 7 or 9.  Just as ATSF intended for the project.