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