Duncan,
It may have been assigned Hannibal as "protection" power for the trains that ran through there. It was probably rotated in and out of service as needed. Why that particular unit? It was most likely "luck of the draw". I don't think there was anything special about it that was different than other E7s in the series. it was just another E7. Hannibal had a full shop facility back then and could easily maintain the unit. In addition, between Burlington and St. Louis, Hannibal was roughly half way. If you look at assignment sheets, locomotives both steam and diesel, were frequently assigned to outlying shops for protection of through trains.
Bill Barber Gravois Mills, MO Tue Dec 13, 2011 10:58 pm (PST)
I've been going through some of the locomotive assignment rosters I have and noticed that between 1950-1958 the Hannibal division has one E7 assigned to it, #9949. Now this motor was an odd one already because of its number. It was the only one of the E7s not to have an A or B attached to its number, and was not numbered sequentially with the rest. It even shared a number with an E8 or 9 (can't remember which right now). But my question has to do with why this one motor was assigned to the Hannibal division. I've located one photo of it pulling train #12 into St. Louis in the early 1950s, but other E7s pulled this train as well and none were assigned to Hannibal. Anyone have any ideas?
Duncan Cameron
__._,_.___
![]()
__,_._,___
|