my ESPEE MODELERS ARCHIVE

California's Railroad to the U.S. 1861 - 1996

EMD F units

of the

Southern Pacific

Cotton Belt

and

Texas and New Orleans

EMD F Units: I have been working on the details of the system F Units on and off for over a year now. It is a very complicated history of transfers and renumberings. I have yet to finish the pages, but have decided to upload what I have done so far.

Cotton Belt was the first to receive EMD F units, in the form of five 4 unit FT ABBA sets delivered in June and July of 1944.

Southern Pacific then received 20 F3 four unit ABBA sets from May 1947 thru January 1948 numbered #6100A,B,C,D - 6119A,B,C,D. and another 20 F3 four unit ABBA sets from December 1948 thru February 1949 numbered #6120A,B,C,D - 6139A,B,C,D

These were transferred to a power short Texas and New Orleans becoming their F3A's #300 - 337 and F3B's #500 - 537.

Some of these were later rebuilt into T&NO F9Am's #600 - 637 and F9Bm's #700 - 725.

Beginning in 1949, SP began to receive 120 of the new EMD F7 model, from June 1949 thru October 1949, delivered in ABBA sets and numbered 6140A,B,C,D - 6169A,B,C,D.

In December of 1949 SP decided the alpha suffixes had to go, and so a general renumbering of all system F units took place. The F A or cab units were given 61** numbers and the F B units or boosters were placed in the 8*** series.

More F7 units arrived starting in December 1949 and continuing thru to July 1953. These were numbered in the new singular unit series, and delivered to SP, SSW and T&NO

Southern Pacific originally numbered F units in sets of four, with one number and an alpha suffix. F A or cab units were suffixed A and D, F B units or boosters were suffixed B and C.

In 1949 SP decided the alpha suffixes had to go, and so a general renumbering of all system F units took place. The F A or cab units were given 61** numbers and the F B units or boosters were placed in the 8*** series.

• F-Unit Prototype page listing:
  • SSW EMD FTA and FTB Info page
  • SP EMD F3A and F3B Info page
  • SP EMD F7A Info page
  • SP EMD F7B Info page
  • SSW EMD F7A and F7B Info page
  • T&NO EMD F3A and F3B Info page
  • T&NO EMD F7A and F7B Info page
  • T&NO EMD F9Am and F9Bm Info page
  • SP Rotary Snowplow Snail Info Page

• F-Unit Model page listing:
  • SSW EMD FTA and FTB Info page
  • SP EMD F3A and F3B Info page
  • SP EMD F7A Info page
  • SP EMD F7B Info page
  • SSW EMD F7A and F7B Info page
  • T&NO EMD F3A and F3B Info page
  • T&NO EMD F7A and F7B Info page
  • T&NO EMD F9Am and F9Bm Info page

Black Widow References:

• soon...

Prototype References:

• SP Historic Diesels Vol.10 by Joe Strapac - EMD Freight F Locomotives
• Railroad Model Craftsman June 1972, St. Louis-Southwestern by Jim Boyd.
• Cotton Belt Locomotives by Joe Strapac pages 202 and 203, history, photo's etc...
• 1972 SP Motive Power Annual by Joe Strapac, pages 1-21 - F unit history and photo's data etc.
• Extra 2200 South 1976 SP Roster parts I-VI
• SPH&TS Bulletin Winter 2001 #66 pages 8-25 - Three Decades of SP F Units by Joe Strapac

also the Searchable Magazine/Book Database
has many more photo references... type in F3 or similar.