F3 phases Thought this may be of use to someone (such as myself) who is still learning about locomotives, trains, and rail-roading. Comments are welcome. |-||-||-||-||-||-||-| The identification of locomotive "phases" is a creation of railfans. EMD used no such identification. EMD kept track of the marketing name (F3) and individual locomotives' build numbers. During the production cycle of a model, EMD would make changes. To keep better track of the variations of locomotives identified the same by the manufacturer, railfans began referring to phases; critical changes to a locomotive line. Despite not being official designations, the phase description is useful. However, many of the changes described are cosmetic, easily changed features of a locomotive; roof fans, body panels, grilles and the like could be and sometimes were updated or swapped. The following are normally identified as F3 phases: Phase I Built from November 1946. High, flat-topped 36 in (914 mm) roof fans. Top third body panel had "chicken wire" in openings only. Short rear vent panel. Center-third body panel with three equally-spaced porthole windows. D17 traction motors. Phase II (early) Built from February 1947. Top third body panel now had full-length "chicken wire". Long rear vent panel. Center third body panel now had two portholes; area between covered with chicken wire, over 4 smaller rectangular openings. Phase II (late) Built from December 1947. Roof radiator fans change to low, pan-topped items. Phase III Built from March 1948. Center third body panel now has no chicken wire between the portholes; the four rectangular openings now have louvres. Phase IV Built from August 1948. Chicken wire upper-third panel is replaced with full-length horizontal stainless steel grille.
Correct! None of the builders used the "phase" designations now commonly used to describe the various phases of diesel locomotives. The creation of phase designations was largely driven by the magazine Extra 2200 South. Regarding EMD F-unit phases, the X2200S defining article is "All About F's", from the January, 1970 issue. There have been a bunch of old X2200S issues on eBay lately, plus, I believe, reprints of all of the issues may still be available. I was missing about 15 issues from their first few years of publication, but was able to obtain reprints (after a long period of time when they were unavailable) around 2000-2001. Hopefully, they are still available. Ken
