Hol,
Thanks for sharing the photos of the passenger F's in service in their original colors, particularly pulling the CZ. Seeing them brings up a question that I have never seen accurately answered. Were those three CZ F3 consists coupled with drawbars between each unit or did they have couplers? Along the same lines, were the four unit FTs coupled with drawbars between each unit or were there couplers between the two B units? What other Q F unit consists had drawbars? Finally, did the Q convert some units to couplers in later years. I don't recall seeing any definitive discussion about drawbars in the old F unit Bulletin.
Bill Barber
Gravois Mills, MO
Wed Mar 18, 2015 9:01 am (PDT) . Posted by:
I was just sorting through some images after scanning a black-and-white view of 9961-C at Aurora that I didn't recall seeing before, and as I found several views of the Q's passenger F3s in the silver passenger paint scheme that I've always liked on those units, so I thought I'd post a few shots of them in passenger service, or at least passenger colors. The Dick Rumbolz photo of the 9961 set in freight service at Lincoln during the summer of 1956 was taken during a period when a bumper wheat crop had so increased traffic on the Q that a large number of steam locomotives that had been sitting idle were put back in service to handle the business and O-5s could be seen for one last time in freight service on the mainline between Lincoln and Chicago. By fall the rush was over and the steam power was put back in storage, most of it never to run again. The passenger F3s had been regeared for freight service in 1955 but for some reason unknown today were not repainted into freight colors at that time, so now, a year later, one set was hard at work out of Lincoln during a very busy summer.
Hol