Ken, what about a race horse with one of the Red Birds? The origional E7 scheme was called Red Bird right?
Depends on where you are along the old Frisco system. Here, the E's were called "Racehorses" after the E8's arrived and the E7's were remodeled. Whatever - they were simply terrific looking locomotives. Ken
Ethan - There very well might have been a few days when a new "Racehorse" (aka "Redbird") E8 ran with an original E7 still in its "Texas Special" or "Meteor" garb, but I think it unlikely. I've never seen a pic of two such units together, and, in addition to the exterior appearance changes, the E7's underwent a regearing and other internal changes to better mate with the new E8's. I would think an E8 and an original E7 would be constantly fighting each other on the Frisco's hog-back Eastern Division due to the different gearing. It wouldn't be a good combo to m/u together, though I guess it could be done. Since there were only six E7's to rebuild, I'll bet they just lined them up at the shop and went to work on them ASAP. When they did this work, new E8's were arriving steadily, so locomotives were available. The Katy also made the same internal changes to their two TS E7's, though their exterior appearance did not change much. One thing for sure, though, the SLSF combo in my pic above never happened! Ken
Nice Ken Both livery's and engines had their own balance of colors, and looked good. Thanks for posting Tom
I never heard a Frisco E-8 called "Redbird". "Racehorse" but not "Redbird". That is a new one for me! Jerome OKC
Hey, Ken, are your TS E7's windows flush mounted on the inside with the supplied plastic strips, or did you actually fit the windows in the openings? They look like they are fit inside the window frames. If not, then they look better than I thought they would. Good job of posing two of Frisco's finest even though the E8 is in the sad scheme. Terry
Terry - The 2003 uses the standard Proto 2000 E7 window strip. The actual window extends a bit out from the backing strip such that it looks like the windows are flush mounted inside the window framing. Other than the nose & windshields, which are off a bit, the P2K E7 is a really nice engine. Supposedly Walthers fixed the nose on their new P2K E7 release last year, but I have not seen one yet. Though I like the way my 2006 looks in the austerity scheme, I thought it was the end of the world when I first saw one in real life. I couldn't believe the Frisco did that to the Racehorses! Then I saw the few E8's that made it into orange & white, and realized the red & yellow austerity scheme was not so bad after all! Fortunately, I only saw the o/w E's in pictures and slides - I never had to suffer through seeing one in real life. Ken
Ken, that explains it. I thought the E7 was a brass Hallmark model. My windows are plastic strips that glue on the inside of the shell which doesn't look too bad from a distance, but I wish they had provided a window strip also. It looks much better. I may have to get a couple of the new P2K E7s especially if they offer them undecorated. That is one locomotive of the Frisco that I don't have. Thanks, Terry
My father and (his circle of Frisco friends), my grandfather, my wife's grandfather (boilermaker at the West Shops and Newburg), called them Redbirds. 2020 on 102's last arrival into KC had "Goodbye Redbird's" chalked on its nose. Clemons and Key in their Birmingham Rails refer to them as Redbirds as well. A regional difference?
Must be. Here in StL, and while in Rolla, I always heard them called Racehorses. We have something else here we call "Redbirds". No matter! Everybody can call the Frisco E's whatever they want, as long as we all agree they were among the neatest E-units anywhere. Did any other railroad give their individual locomotive units each a unique name? I know several airlines did so with their aircraft fleet. Ken
C&EI had an E-unit named "Eliza Doolittle" I believe named for a character in "My Fair Lady." I don't know any other details, I couldn't care less about Broadway musicals--My forte is American "Roots' Music." Tom
Ken said: "No matter! Everybody can call the Frisco E's whatever they want, as long as we all agree they were among the neatest E-units anywhere." Right you are Ken! The full-stripe, named "Racehorses" were neater than Warbonnets, Zephyrs, Hiawathas, Daylights, Empire Builders, Eagles, Centurys...you name it. Tom
I agree with Sherrel - GM&O was pretty nice. You will notice the tops of two black & maroon units behind my pic above of 2003 and 2006 - GM&O PA1's. Real beauties. The KCS livery is still running on the Panama Railroad, on former Amtrak F40PH B-B units. We saw two trains, pulling container cars, on our trip through the canal in Feb, 2007. KCS owns the Panama RR. I also liked Wabash. I don't know if the Frisco's "Racehorse" (a/k/a "Redbird") decor alone was the greatest, though it was very nice. It's the giving each unit an individual horse name that really sets them apart from the others in my mind. Really neat! Ken
FYI, here's a pic of one of the container trains we saw from the Panama Canal, behind KCS scheme F40PH's, in 2/07. The colorful old KCS scheme still looks pretty good. They were really hammering along. The KCS is making a good business down there competing with the canal on cross-isthmus container hauls between the two ports, which each have huge container facilities. BTW, the Pacific side facility, at Balboa, is owned by the PRC! Balboa is located at the southeastern end of the canal. The Atlantic side port, at Colon, is located at the northwestern end of the canal. Crazy geography! The KCS also runs a couple of coach passenger trains back & forth, also behind F40PH's. Ken
Indeed, the Frisco E's were second to none. Sadly, while the Frisco kept the E's fairly clean, some of our beloved racehorses looked rather long in the tooth as time passed. As is known to us all, a variety configurations came to be; all of which were less pleasing (to varying degrees) to the eye than the red, silver, gold and white. There was one E-unit running during the early sixties that combined the gold with the newer yellow. Several E-units had noses that looked as if they had just run through a sandstorm.
