Nostalgia & History > What a way to destroy the looks of an F-unit

Check this image posted on Monday's, 9/26 Classic Trains Photo of the Day.  Never seen anything like that before.  Any other F-unit's looks destroyed like this?

Caption is:
In 1968, short line Georgia, Ashburn, Sylvester & Camilla was under Southern Railway control but still retained plenty of character. Former Southern FT No. 16, fitted with a jaunty bell on the nose, leads a freight through the weeds near Sigsbee, Ga.
Jim Boyd photo

Jeff



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/26/16 12:28 by jridge.

---

But Trains Magazine called it "jaunty" IIRC.

Brian Ehni

At least the steam era bell got a new lease on life.
Dave

jridge Wrote:

> Any other F-unit's looks destroyed like this?

I'd say Rock Island 49 and Soo 2228-A have that one beat:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2191205
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2449561



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/26/16 13:45 by Evan_Werkema.

That's not that badly defaced. Could be worse: It could have those god-awful snowplow pilots SP and ARR units had.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/26/16 15:47 by NYC_L4a.

MKT with the door in the nose has to be close to #1,

Out

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> jridge Wrote:
>
> > Any other F-unit's looks destroyed like this?
>
> I'd say Rock Island 49 and Soo 2228-A have that
> one beat:
>
> http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,
> 2191205
> http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,
> 2449561

Agreed!

If I remember correctly, this is the train crew that got mad at Jim Boyd for taking their picture.  As the train would pass Jim's photo locations, the crew would cuss him out and throw apples at him!

None of the GAS&C survived abandonment. But this photo at Sigsbee was on another Pidcock line acquired by Southern, the Georgia Northern. Subsequent to the taking of this photo, Southern rebuilt this line with welded rail to 49 mph as part of a freight route Birmingham-Columbus-Americus-Albany-Sparks. It provided a Birmingham-Florida route that avoided the congested Atlanta terminal. The idea didn't last, and to the extent that NS needs such a bypass it can run Birmingham-Columbus-Macon without dipping into southwest Georgia. But the trackage through Sigsbee is in place.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/26/16 14:41 by ctillnc.

Wasn't EMD 103 (SR 4100) owned by one of the Pidcock lines?

callum_out Wrote:

> MKT with the door in the nose has to be close to #1,

MKT 401-B now preserved at Denison, TX:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3788788,3788792#3788792

That's #1 in my opinion.

callum_out Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> MKT with the door in the nose has to be close to
> #1,
>
> Out

MKT definitely worse than a bell

lynnpowell Wrote:

> If I remember correctly, this is the train crew
> that got mad at Jim Boyd for taking their
> picture.  As the train would pass Jim's photo
> locations, the crew would cuss him out and throw
> apples at him!

That's the one.  The photo appeared on page 26 of the April 1969 issue of Trains as part of Boyd's "When It's Shortline Time Down South."   The page 26 spread also includes a near-broadside of the unit as it passed with the engineer standing in the doorway yelling at Boyd, and the text on pages 29 and 30 gives a full run-down of the "apple incident."  The description of the bell placement as "jaunty" appears in the page 26 photo caption and again in the text on page 28.  A similar but slightly more telesmashed comin'-at-yah shot of the FT, its jaunty bell, and its train is on the issue's cover.

The lead photo appeared again on page 86 of the April 2005 issue as the "Once Upon a Time in Trains..." featured photo. 

Even with the bell, this unit is more attractive than most of the passenger units being built today.

Jay

Yes, this is the one where the engineer came across the cab and threw an apple core at brother Boyd and may have yelled at him to quit taking photos.

I'm glad I am not the onlyone who remebered that story about that picture..  Perhaps the crew wre still folowing WW II
​security recommendations about fans taking pictures.   Maby they took Jim for a YANKEE.

WWII? Hell they're still fightin' the Civil War and luckily can spot a Yankee at a thousand feet!

Out

callum_out Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> WWII? Hell they're still fightin' the Civil War
> and luckily can spot a Yankee at a thousand feet!
>
> Out

If we are still fighting The War between the States, then we are either winning with a bunch of Yankee hostages down here or losing terribly with a heavy invasion of Yankees down here. Haven't been able to figure that one out yet ;-)

I don't believe the Southerners have made the effort to counter invade the northern states nor have the Yankees been as successful keeping us hostage up there ;-)

Jay

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> lynnpowell Wrote:
>
> > If I remember correctly, this is the train crew
> > that got mad at Jim Boyd for taking their
> > picture.  As the train would pass Jim's photo
> > locations, the crew would cuss him out and
> throw
> > apples at him!
>
> That's the one.  The photo appeared on page 26 of
> the April 1969 issue of Trains as part of Boyd's
> "When It's Shortline Time Down South."   The
> page 26 spread also includes a near-broadside of
> the unit as it passed with the engineer standing
> in the doorway yelling at Boyd, and the text on
> pages 29 and 30 gives a full run-down of the
> "apple incident."  The description of the bell
> placement as "jaunty" appears in the page 26 photo
> caption and again in the text on page 28.  A
> similar but slightly more telesmashed
> comin'-at-yah shot of the FT, its jaunty bell, and
> its train is on the issue's cover.
>
> The lead photo appeared again on page 86 of the
> April 2005 issue as the "Once Upon a Time in
> Trains..." featured photo. 

I assess that the train crew has friends and relatives here on TrainOrders.

At any rate, I'd opine those Bulldog noses were about as close to stylistic perfection as the diesel locomotive ever got. Personally, I prefer the older slant nose E's, but those F's and later E's were unarguably the icons of the First Generation. The interesting thing, though, is that the lines of the nose naturally formed a picture frame and a blank canvas that demanded, even required, artistic expression. As such they were easy to work with if one had a "feeling " for their curving lines. RI's original black & red, SP's Black Widow, NYC's Lightening Stripe all were at their finest on the Bulldog - even ACL's garish purple scheme looked appealing (though better on a Slant Nose), but it was easy to go wrong. We've talked about the most egregious examples of physical disfigurement here - that bell demonstrates the rampant nature of mental illness in the RR industry - but in truth it didn't take much to break the lines of a beauty and turn her into somebody's ugly stepsister, the footboards that gave NYO&W FT's the Dick-Tracy-jaw being a prime example.

But what about those gawdawful paint schemes that did injustice to EMC's design team? The latter years' spartan and bland schemes surely placed the bald-faced decline of railroads on display. RI traded that aforementioned, gorgeous scheme for a foreboding, dark maroon that accentuated the spectre of RI as wounded, nose-less bulldog sniffing and limping along without direction. One of the most patently clueless schemes was KCS's white "dust bunny" scheme. Grit and grime collected everywhere, but less so on that big-wash out of a nose that screamed, "We have a blank canvas here, but we don't know what to do about it."

So, some of you must have worse examples of Bulldog paint decor, no?

EO
... ¿telesmash?