An open thread! This gives me an opportunity to discuss some of the unique modifications that the Santa Fe Railway made to their diesel locomotive fleet.

Perhaps the best-known example would be the CF7, which stands for ‘Converted F7’. Basically as the F7s were approaching the end of their service life, they were used primarily for local and short-haul freights (the conversion program took place within a year or two of the formation of Amtrak). The F7 was basically designed to haul passengers or freight from point A to point B- not travel from point A to a grain elevator 15 miles away, switch a bunch of cars and return to point A. Part of the problem was the lack of an external walkway on the original F7s as well as firm, sturdy steps for the conductor to climb on and off the locomotive with (especially problematic in the winters when the exterior would ice up). It was also difficult for the engineer to see his train from the cab. So while overhauling the original engine, Santa Fe decided to scrap the trucks, carbody and frame, building a new one from secartch.
This turned out to be very succesful, as over 200 CF7s were porduced by Santa Fe. Although they were stricken from Santa Fe’s roster by 1987, there was a number of shortlines and reigonals at the time who were quite interested in purchasing them secondhand. Amtrak even acquired some for Maintainence of Way service, trading them some SDP40Fs in exchange for the CF7s and switchers. To this day, many shortlines are still using their CF7s.

The SD26 was a little less successful by comparison. The SD26 was Santa Fe’s modification of the EMD SD24- the SD24 itself never really took off as a production locomotive. Santa Fe gave their SD24 fleet new filters and a prime mover which resulted in an output of 2650 HP (versus the original 2400HP). They were able to nurse another 20 years out of them after the rebuild, but in the 1980s most of them were traded to EMD new GP50s or scrapped. A few of them were sold to Guilford Transportation, where two of them soldier on to this day.

There’s also Santa Fe’s SFC30- a six-axle behemoth that was originally built by General Electric as a U36C. Santa Fe de-rated them from 3600 HP to about 3100 HP and modified the cabs. Although those are all off the roster now, some of them continue in service as ‘rent-a-wrecks’ or have been sold off south of the border.

Yet…as busy as the Santa Fe shop forces were with those projects, they pale in comparison to the work done in Illinois Central’s Paducah, KY shops over the same timeframe.