All this talk of the new Genesis F-units has gotten me drooling, but
I have some questions regarding CB&Q PROTOTYPE operation. I am
modeling the very late Q era ? late 1968 to early 1970 (merger time).
Therefore, most of the F-units were already gone. My questions have
mainly to do with final usage and disposition of these units:
According to the BRHS website and BB 04 only two F's made it to the
merger: F7A's 168A and 168C. The rest left in 2/69, traded in on
SD45's. Some of the F3's also made it to 2/69, traded in on the
SD45's. Here are the questions:
1. Did the Q run their F's pretty much up till the time of trade-in,
or did they sit dead somewhere for several months before leaving the
property?
2. I know 168A and 168C were still around at merger time ? how much
action did they see till the end? Does anyone know where they
primarily roamed? With what kind of power were they normally working
with ? were they relegated to duties with other older power i.e.
GP7/9, SD7/9, or could they still be found in road service with newer
power such as GP20/30/35/40's and U-boats? Did they still lead
consists or were they usually trailing units?
3. According to a post on the website, the Genesis numbers are F7a
164A (traded in 2/69 on the SD45 order), with F3A/B 164B/C (also
traded in 2/69 on the SD45's) are coming soon. These would possibly
fit my modeling era, but again, were they actually running until
trade-in time? Does anyone (e.g. John Olson) know if Athearn might be
releasing F7A's numbered 168A or 168C, which ran until merger time?
4. When was the last time Q ran pure F strings or multiple F lashups?
Were some of the F-units still running in A/A, A/B, A/B/A, etc. sets
near the end (2/69), even if mixed with other units (I realize they
were not permanently coupled, but I wondered if toward the end Q
tended to keep the F's together for maintenance purposes or whatever.)
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. I have not made the
leap to green units yet (SD45, U23C), and don't know if I will, so
modeling the late 1968 to early 1969 era is a real possibility, if
the F's were still fairly active. I hope this gets some people
reminiscing about the last days of the F-units (and hopefully gives
me an excuse to get some Genesis F-units ordered right away)!
One last comment, not F-unit related. My brother picked up a CB&Q
Proto 2000 Phase I GP30 for me at a recent hobby shop sale ($26,
couldn't turn it down). Since I already had all six of them (the 3
Phase I's and two Phase II's), at first I questioned what I would do
with it, but when I found it was GP30 #949 I thought I could turn it
into #948. Bottom line, I now have 7 different GP30's on my layout,
and no one can tell that 948 used to be 949. The Microscale CB&Q
diesel decal set numbers fit perfectly over the Proto 2000 numbers.
The first number I changed, I simply overlayed the 8 on the last 9 in
949. Looked perfect. On the other side I decided to use just a
partial of the decal to fill in the gap at the bottom left of the 9
to turn it into an 8. This also worked great, so either way works.
The black number board numbers that come in the Microscale decal
sheet also fit the number boards perfectly. Again, if I don't tell
people that 948 was the original number, they would never know. So if
anyone is looking to add another GP30 to the fleet, and finds a good
deal on 949, don't hesitate to buy it even if you already have 949. A
quick project will give you 948!
Tom Mack
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