Nostalgia & History > Psst, hey buddy ya wanna run an F?

Contrary to long-held scientific theory, there IS enough room on an EMD F-7 cab floor to set up a tripod and take a 30 second exposure looking out the engineer’s front window. 38 years ago 2 of us young & fearless 20-something Kansas Gang railfans traveled down to Oklahoma City and split a motel room. The next morning we would grab a quick breakfast and commence a popular activity known as “Chasing the Katy Fs”*.

But the night before our chase my nocturnal photographic yearning got the best of me. I wanted to get a head-start on the chase with some night photography. I coerced my chasing partner, Mr John Arbuckle (The Chief Way here on TO) into heading down to the RR yard to see about doing a few long Kodachrome burns. Besides a single & very garish utility pole light there wasn’t a whole lot of other ambient light available for our Katy Fs. But being 7 months into my first year of train service I had already taken several night time train rides. So I was sure there would be a real possibility of using interior cab lighting for some artsy-fartsy shooting. I can’t remember if John followed me up into the cab, or just stood guard down on the ground. I didn’t spend more than a few minutes up there because I knew I had nailed the in-cab exposure on this first shot. So I got back down and did a walk around photo-study as best I could in the near-complete darkness. Those results were only so-so, but I kinda like this one…

1. Looking out the hogger’s window of MKT 72C near the bewitching hour of November 30, 1978 in Oklahoma City, OK. 11 years after this shot I would be deep into engineer training up in Montana (MRL). Yeah ‘buddy’, I took promotion to Locomotive Engineer in May of 1990, but I never got to run an F-unit in any form…

*I’ve always thought the phrase: “Chasing the Katy Fs” had a nice little ring to it. Certainly something that a couple of Kansas Gangsters could actually perform with a smidgeon of honor. I’m not sure, but I may have picked up the phrase from a late-1970s Trains magazine article about the Katy Fs ‘riding the Rock’ out of OKC to McAlester…

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/12/22 00:28 by santafe199.

---

Nice shot.
I even had a chance to see the MKT F units in Oklahoma City.
I believe these were the last operating F cab engines on the MKT ?
Gary

That's a neat shot. I like it.

- Jeff 

I notice a red triangle on the speedometer between 10 and 20MPH. I wonder if that's to aid the engineer in keeping out of Harmonic Rock restrictions?
JC

Posted from Android

JasonCNW Wrote: > ...  a red triangle on the speedometer between 10 and 20 MPH...
I'm sure that "red zone" is about harmonic rock. Funny thing: I never heard about harmonic rock restrictions until after I left the Santa Fe in 1987. In my summer 1987 stint on the DM&E I read a (C&NW??) timetable which contained "rock and roll" restrictions in the special instructions. I remember an incident east of Huron, SD during one of my initial student trips where a loaded hopper rocked almost all the way off its center pin. So I'm here to tell you there was a definite need to pay close attention to those restrictions. (Of course, the smart-ass in me was playfully pissed off at a RR which put restrictions on what kind of music we could listen to on the road... ;^)

DJ Sir L

My first experience running a SD9 was on 85lb jointed rail.  The old SP hogger that was riding with me said don't sit between 16 and 18mph or she'd rock of the rails.  I got just above 15mph when the locomotive started to slightly rock side to side, then got worse, then worse.  The old hogger walked over and jammed on the indepentend brake which broke the rythim.  Sure was an eye opening experience.

Neat shot.

I've gotten the chance to run a few Fs at the Portola Museum and I must confess, as neat as it is, the high seating and lack of visibility always made me feel uneasy, especially with people around.  Always felt much more comfortable in a switcher.

Still, the F7 is one of our most popular Run A Locomotive engines, so that tells me what the people like!

Z

zephyrus Wrote: < ... the high seating and lack of visibility always made me feel uneasy ...
I can easily see your point. But on the other hand I've often wondered what it was like to sit in the hogger's seat on the point of the Super Chief @ 90 per...

:^p



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/17 17:31 by santafe199.

Cool shot. I never spent much time looking at the guages, but it's an interesting dashboard. Thanks for posting!