300-304 SW7

[rogerrt477]

SLSF 300/BN 75 (Stored) Springfield, MO. 5/4/85

[rogerrt477]

SLSF 302/BN 77 (Stored) Springfield, MO. 6/22/86

[rogerrt477]

SLSF 303/BN 78 (Stored) Springfield, MO. 6/22/86

[rogerrt477]

SLSF 318/BN 23 No.Kansas City, MO. 9/85

[roger]

SLSF 302/BN 77/SRS 77 Springfield, MO. 10/27/03

[timothy]

I am not sure of this SW's number. I took this in 1979 with a Kodak Instamatic. This was the ONLY SW I had ever seen in Chaffee. I can barely remember the AT&N RS1s, I do remember the GP-7s but never do I recall any SWs except for this one.

(Note 6/11/09 from klrwhizkid: Using my best graphic software, I was able to determine this is SW7 #303.)

[Rick Morgan]

Frisco SW7 302, pushes tank cars at Tulsa on 19 Aug 1974.
Rick Morgan

[RogerRT]

SLSF 300-304 SW7 Depositions

[Frisco2008]

SLSF SW-7 302

[KCC&S KCO&S]

HI all

When I opened this thread I didn't expect to find a Locomotive that I have had hand to throttle on but their she is SLSF 302 / BN 77 owned by Springfield Railway Serivces / Trinity Railcar. I ran this locomotive switching cars in and out of the shop for a short while before moving into a welding postion.

A little history about her that I know, the prime mover was upgraded to 1000HP date unknown she served the above industry well for many years. She had her qwarks but ran quite well. after I went to the steel shop the crew that took over forgot to check the weather forecast and one night in the fall of 2007 if memory serves they shut her down and the temp dropped into the 20's :eek: that night needless to say she froze and broke a bunch of the plumbing and maybe the block. either way she was put out of service and Trinity Railcar at the time didn't want to put any money into repairs. She was stored at the plant (old steam shop) until Trinity left Springfield Mo. I don't know if they scrapped the Locomotive or left it for BNSF I was told the bearings were locked up on the axles from setting and could not be moved. :(

Have a great day

Darren

[Sirfoldalot]

SLSF SW7 #304
BN #79
EHDX #101
RSSX # 356 November 2005

http://www.trainweb.org/greengoats/rssx/356.html

[mark]

Please see this view of SLSF 303, an EMD SW-7, at the roundhouse at East Thomas Yard in Birmingham, AL.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hunter1828/3567927972/sizes/l/

In this view the locomotive is painted Mandarin orange and white. A number of details are visible in this view including the whip radio antenna, yellow safety light, air line to the bell ringer, modified uncoupling levers and the "Save Fuel" sticker above the fuel filler pipe. There is also some really nice weathering that can be duplicated on a model.

Hope this helps.

Thanks!

Mark

[River Hills Travler]

Is the top headlight lense red?

[meteor910]

Looks like it!

The Frisco SW7's were delivered with large single beam headlights. Over their service life, they all likely recieved replacement dual sealed beam lights, like 303 has. This is the same vertical dual beam headlight housing the SW9's came with. At least one SW7, SLSF 304, received a round side-by-side dual beam headlight housing instead.

Looking at my pics, it looks like 303, and possibly 302, received a red upper light when they received the dual beam retrofit. Looks like 302 got its dual beam set up while still in black & yellow.

Perhaps these units did a lot of ex-yard local and transfer runs out on the road. Hence, a red emergency flasher for emergency situations would be a useful accessory.

Ken

[mark]

Dwain and Ken,

The top headlight lens on SLSF 303 is not red.

What you see is a cover over the lamp to blank out one bulb. The Electro Motive Division of General Motors manufactured headlamp covers with molded in letters for their brand EMD. These covers blanked out one lens and were at one time applied to some yard service units.

Yard crews often did not like the use at night of headlights or flashing amber beacons. They felt they created safety issues while switching and moving around yard and industrial areas at night. The crews often felt "blinded" by the sharp contrast between the lights and the dark of night. That is the main reason most early switchers had a non-flashing amber light bulb markers.

An advantage of the blank out lens caps is they were removable. This permitted an engine to be modified quickly if working in an area with more street grade crossings or "over the road". Later safety rules and theft of the covers resulted in their gradual elimination.

There are a number of photographs of Frisco units with a similar treatment. In addition to the 303 at least the following units were so equipped - 306, 308, 309, 310, 313, 314 (all EMD model SW-9) and brake sled SL-SF X-82. Unit SLSF 308 had the upper lense blanked. The other units had the lower blanked.

Hope this helps.

Thanks!

Mark

[meteor910]

Mark -

Thanks! We learn something new on frisco.org every day.

Ken

[mark]

Dwain and Ken,

Here is a more head on view of the front of EMD SW-7 SLSF 303 at Amory, MS.

http://www.thebluecomet.com/slsf303AmoryMS.jpg

This shot more clearly shows the blanked top headlight lens lamp.

Hope this helps.

Thanks!

Mark