I ran into a pic of an old friend today - received my issue of the Monon RR Historical-Technical Society's Special Issue of their publication "The Hoosier Line", which featured their recent convention held in Monticello, Indiana. The back cover of the bulletin had a picture of a TP&W GP50 which was parked for the weekend of the convention on the TP&W at the crossing of the former Monon rails. (TP&W is a midwest short line which spans the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois). See the attached pic of TP&W 5010. Sorry it's not a better pic. This locomotive is the former SLSF (BN) 3100, the only GP50 the Frisco ordered that made it into the orange & white livery. It entered into service in December, 1980. The other nine GP50's followed, but were in BN green and black livery. Glad to see SLSF 3100 is still in service. Many of the GP50's have been troublesome. Sort of like the GP35's - the 645 engine is a bit stressed, as the 567 was on the 35's. Kevin EuDaly, which a number of we frisco.org folks know, and his dad participated in the convention with a presentation of Monon photos. Kevin's company publishes a number of railroad historical society publications and magazines, etc. - Whiteriver Productions. K
Great info Ken. I certainly had no idea it was still in service. Funny I have done a couple things through Whiteriver but had no idea who actually owned it.
Cool. You just never know what’s going to show up on a Genesee and Wyoming property. Thanks for sharing. Pat Moreland, Wesco, Missouri
Speaking of former Frisco power: A few years ago when I was still RR-in', the A&M had a major derailment that dumped two of the new SD something-or-others into a creek. This meant that just about ALL available C-420s went back to Springdale to be used on the turns. Of course, that was going to put Fort Smith in a bind, so they leased three engines to get us through: A pair of former D&E/TO&E GP40's, and a KCS GP40. I ended up with the KCS GP40, number 2959. (However, I did have cause to work with the pair of D&E/TO&E engines a few times.) I can't remember who it was, but one of my online railfan friends told me KCS 2959 was a former Frisco engine, GP40-2 #759. Well I'll be darned. Didn't have a clue about that. However, that little factoid that had a nice mental "cool factor" to me as I went about my business of making a living using former Frisco power. I will say that once you got that engine rolling (kind of slippery from a dead start w/heavy tonnage), it was stout as a mule. I think it still holds the single unit records for most tonnage up out of the river bridge, and for sure all over Fort Smith's grades. After many years of only running Alco's, it sure was nice to have the ergonomics of an EMD back under me, and it was great hearing that turbo 645. I was the ONLY A&M employee in Fort Smith that knew anything about dealing with EMD! I had to teach the life-long A&M Trainmaster and all the other Fort Smith Engineer's about EMD's: How to start them, where the layshaft was located and its use, how to drain the cylinders prior to a dead start, etc, etc. I even had to instruct our lone Mech Dept guy (he prepped the Fort Smith units each morning) on where the fuel filters were, start-up switches, etc. Here's a pic my old friend Mike Condren took of me in #2959 as I''m heading north past the Frisco's FS depot with a lot of interchange from the KCS. (Mike could have been the one that told me about 2959's ancestry?) A bit of history in that pic!: Former Frisco depot, former Frisco tracks, former Frisco engine, and an Engineer (that you can't see!) that had a lot of history in the past with the Frisco! Good heater by the way, once I got it fixed. Think I ended up running that unit for about 6 months. All fer now. Andre
That's soo cool Andre, I got to run a couple former Frisco GP38-2's all the way out here in western Colorado. I just hoped I was running a couple engines my grandpa ran. Not likely but hey a guy can dream right. Maybe somebody can photo shop your image and Frisco-ise it for you.
Yes Andre you aught to have someone turn that into the Frisco unit that it was, do you know the year, that is the Belle paint so it had to be maybe 03 or so ?
Tom: Cool indeed about running a pair of former Frisco engines. William: Photo was copied to my hard drive on 5/10/15. Trees indicate that could be close to the correct date. Keith: Thanks. And thanks to Mike for snapping the pic and sending me a copy. I can't recall the details, but I may be standing beside Mike visiting with him. I think I recall that once I saw who it was, I stopped the train and got down for a short visit. Andre
