From the May, 1950 issue of Frisco's All Aboard: Here is the full All Aboard article regarding the conversion of the six Frisco Texas Special and Meteor E7As (EA7) from their original livery in 1950 into the "Racehorse" scheme designed to match the newly arriving E8As from EMD. I had seen three of these pictures before, but never all four complete with the captions. If I post them correctly, the pictures will show in the correct order. Enjoy! Well, they are showing in reverse order! Bah! Read the captions from the right picture to the left picture. Sorry. Ken Edit 2/21/2024: Order of photographs has been corrected. MKD
This article was actually in the June 1950 issue of All Aboard. The same issue has a short article discussing the remodeling of the Kansas City-Florida Special diners. The cars which apparently were the recipients of the fluting removed from the Texas Special locomotives.
Thanks Keith. I love the E8As, but I always thought the six E7As (EA7s) modified into the "Racehorse" paint scheme had a special classy look with the smoother roof line resulting from the E7A (EA7) radiator grills. I remember being in downtown Rolla once before lunch getting a haircut. As I left the barber shop, I heard No 3 blowing for the crossings and station stop, so before going to eat, I wandered over to the depot. On the point of the Will Rogers that day, probably 1962 or 1963, was SLSF 2001, Ranger, one of the E7As (EA7s). It was all faded, weathered and beat up, still in its original red and gold stripe white bordered scheme. Up front, it still had the remnants of the blue coonskin. Most of the blue paint had worn off but you could still see the blue color here and there. That was the first and only time I saw one of the "horses" with its original blue herald on the nose. Ken
