[Attachment(s) from Hol Wagner included below]
Jogged my memory a bit (after all, this was 46 years ago!) and did a bit of digging and here are two views of Q 168A in service on the BN. In May 1970, just over two months after the BN merger, my good friend Ken Crist journeyed east from Denver to Lincoln
to catch the GN and Q E7s that were then running in freight service out of Lincoln, and also the 168A, since it was the only Q F-unit to survive the merger. He got great shots of the E7s and learned that the F-unit was working the Lincoln-Sioux City turn.
So he drove over to Ashland and followed the line all the way up to Sioux City, arriving late in the evening to find the 168A and Q GP7 265 coupled and sitting at the GN roundhouse, waiting to head back south to Lincoln with the local freight. Unfortunately,
they were to depart during the night, so Ken had to be satisfied with a tight shot of the pair at the roundhouse, with a renumbered former GN GP7, now BN 1527, on the next track, giving testimony that it was indeed a post-merger photo. The 168A was pretty
worn and ratty by this time, but a month later it was far worse looking when I caught up with it at the former Q 23rd St. roundhouse in Denver on a dreary, rainy June afternoon. It had been turned on the turntable (I photographed that scene, too) after coming
in from Lincoln with a drag freight and was placed on the point of a remarkable power consist to take a similar freight back east. In the intervening month since Ken photographed the old F-unit, the 168's nose herald had been peeled of and the BURLINGTON
lettering on its sides literally scratched off, leaving it with no ownership identification anywhere in sight. Its builder's plates had also been removed -- no doubt by a railfan -- but its F7 plates were still in place, as was its anachronistic wagonwheel
radio antenna. And the five-unit motive power consist it headed was a real gem: Behind the 168A were two F7 B-units, the first a leased D&RGW unit and the second a former GN unit in Omaha orange and Pullman green. Next was an unrenumbered Q GP35 in Chinese
red, and last came a former GN high-nose GP20 in Big Sky Blue. I would not have believed it if I had not seen and photographed it! And sadly, that would be the last time I saw the 168A.
Hol
From: CBQ@yahoogroups.com <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> on behalf of Scott Manley scott.manley@smsooland.com [CBQ] <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2016 1:49 PM
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [CBQ] The last F unit
Found this on the internet regarding 168A
http://www.railpictures.net/photo/259885/
From: CBQ@yahoogroups.com [mailto:CBQ@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Monday, June 27, 2016 11:22 AM
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [CBQ] The last F unit
Michael:
It operated several times between Lincoln and Sioux City that I'm aware of.
Hol
From: CBQ@yahoogroups.com <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> on behalf of Michael Matalis mmatalis@sprynet.com [CBQ] <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, June 27, 2016 8:28 AM
To: Q
Subject: [CBQ] The last F unit
CB&Q F7A 168A made it to merger day, but did the BN ever operate it? The 1971 Motive Power Annual seems to say so, there’s a photo of it coupled to other power a couple months after
the merger but I’m not sure if this was for a train or if it was just being shuffled around in storage. The fact that it was traded in to EMD a few months later without being renumbered seems to indicate that it’s operational days on the BN were few if any.
Thank you kindly,
Michael Matalis
Downers Grove IL
You can see my railroad photography blog at http://www.chasingheavymetal.com/blog/
You can see my photos and my ugly mug at http://www.flickr.com/photos/prairierailfan/sets/
And you can now find me and my fine felines on Facebook
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Attachment(s) from Hol Wagner | View attachments on the web
2 of 2 Photo(s)
Posted by: Hol Wagner <holpennywagner@msn.com>
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