Nostalgia & History > GM&O F's for Signal Sunday

Here's a shot I took of a northbound GM&O freight north of Godfrey, IL on an overcast April 4th, 1977 passing some Alton/B&O influenced CPL's.

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Great shot!

They look almost as battered as the cornfield.

Nice, I remember them as a child going through my home town of Lockport in route to Glen Yard.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Sweet!!

Thanks for sharing. I always like "covered wagons".

To you GM&O historians and fans: I'm told the GM&O was a profitable RR just before it was absorbed by the ICG. But from looking at many photos of the older motive power they still had and the nasty looking infrastructure, one wouldn't think so. Was this RR a penny pincher?

> Was this RR a penny pincher?

Yes. Bear in mind, though, that the photo was taken almost 5 years after IC acquired GM&O. At that point, any locomotive from GM&O older than a GP30 was being run until it dropped.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/14 15:08 by ctillnc.

Oh, yes. The GM&O pinched pennies. After the mid 1960's the beautiful red and maroon, with yellow pinstriping, vanished in favor of the solid red or maroon (what ever the shop had handy). Most of the engines in the south went red, and in the north, the F-3s and RS units got either red or maroon. The new Gp-30s, 35's, 38's and SD 40's mostly went down south, leaving the 20 year old F and RS units operating up north. Double track ABS was replaced by single track CTC from St. Louis to Chicago, leaving a capacity problem that is taking federal money today to resolve.

The track though, even becoming single, was still maintained to the highest standards for the Chicago - St. Louis passenger trains and the locomotives were well maintained, even if not well painted.

I remember that the Bloomington shop continued repainting the F units in the red and maroon, up until 1965. As my memory serves me, they did 801B, 805B and finally the 807B. They had been told that they could "touch up" the units, but not repaint them.
The justification for the repaints was that they did not paint the bottom of the fuel tanks. Right after they did the 807B, one of the top brass from Mobile passed through and saw the 807B, and that was the end of the "touching up" and the two tone units.

wabash2800 Wrote:
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> To you GM&O historians and fans: I'm told the GM&O
> was a profitable RR just before it was absorbed by
> the ICG. But from looking at many photos of the
> older motive power they still had and the nasty
> looking infrastructure, one wouldn't think so. Was
> this RR a penny pincher?

A little off-topic, perhaps, but the March, 1978 issue of 'Trains' Mag has a terrific article about some of GM&O's operations from the point-of-view of train-service employees. (Prior to the formation of ICG.)

Worth seeking-out -- IMO, one of the best 'Trains' articles EVER. Believe the title is/was: "9900 Tons".

Pat from Littleton, CO.