Eastern Railroad Discussion > GM&O 103

Happened to see the old classic movie "In the Heat of the Night" and saw a GM&O #103 in one scene. What became of that unit along the years and from looking in fallen flags and such I see photo's of a 103 and 103A. Some were in the same year, were they two seperate units?

BTW, didn't some old GM&O eventually become Metro North units, or were they of ICG / IC heritage?

103 and 103A were two separate units, built for the Chicago & Alton and became GM&O units after the merger in 1947. The GM&O engines that went to the MBTA were F3's that were rebuilt to F10's by ICG Paducah.

They went to scrap in 1974,IIRC. Only the F-units were rebuilt for commuter use. Keith Turley/ Details West

GM&O 103 and 103A were E7As. Both scrapped. In fact, only 1 E7A was saved, PRR 5901 at Strasburg.

John C. Benson

http://www.bensonrailphotos.com

Since you speak about GM&O E-7s, I will post some pics of them.

1 - 103A at St. Louis Union Station on 3-7-74

2 - 101 in Chicago in 7-69

3 - 100 at Bloomington, IL in 6-66

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Now some trains:

1 - 101 as the Abe Lincoln at 21st St. Chicago in 7-69

2 - 101 descending Merchants Bridge in St. Louis in 5-71

3 - 103A at Gratiot St. Tower in St. Louis

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IIRC, GM&O E7's were used for a while by Amtrak but never purchased, even though supposedly they were in much better condition than the much-newer Milwaukee Road E9's.

I ran the 103A and 101 in mainline passenger service...stellar performers, they. Had 103A and 101 (E7s) and an eight-car Amtrak consist well into the 90mph range somewhere between Lincoln and Springfield, Ill...I saw the Barco speedometer needle bouncing between 90 and 100 and, under the watchful eye of the late, legendary GM&O hogger Jimmy Clark, I asked "...just how fast are we going...?" All he replied was "...fast enough to get to Springfield on-time..."

The next trip I made with Jimmy Clark we had a pair of Milwaukee Road E's and it was tough to get much above 80.

No proof of our speeds on either trip. The order of business on a passenger run with Jimmy Clark was to disable the speed recorder, then wedge a signal flag to disable the deadman's pedal. Gasp at the thought of it in today's railroad word but that was s-o-p back then. Add to that the fact that much of the running on that particular night--Bloomington to St. Louis--was done by a high school-age railfan (me), and understand railroading was a different world 35 years ago. In fact, on one night, a previous poster on this thread (cabinman) was sitting in the fireman's seat as I ran. I think we swiched seats near Springfield!

BTW--"In The Heat Of The Night" was shot on the GM&O at Sparta, Ill.

Several of the GM&O E7s were scrapped and their engines utilized to repower GM&O RS1s. Can't remember the numbers.

Alco251,
You are correct. The movie was filmed in Sparta, IL. The IC has a road-switcher that reports for duty at Baldwin, IL. and travels through Sparta en route to Pinckneyville, IL. to set-out/pick-up their loading for the DuQuion local. The depot in Sparta is a dead giveaway that the movie was indeed filmed here.

Yes, Alco251, We did switch seats and I made the station stop at Springfield. 251 and I were engineers on the Six Flags railroad outside St. Louis. We railfanned the area for a couple of years together and I am still amazed at how we were treated at almost every railroad facility. Most workers were warm and friendly, even moving power for us for better photography. I remember an instance at the B&O E.St. Louis roundhouse where the foreman had a unit washed so it would look nice in our photos! (it was his idea......)
GM&O took the prize. We were treated like family all over the railroad. I was planning on going into engine service after high school and was carefully "tutored" running locos by several GM&O and Mopac engineers. Getting to run a high speed Amtrak passenger train with wink and nod approval from management was a railfans dream.
My fond memories of all of this are coming back with modeling this era and those trains in HO scale.

Alco 251, Those were the greatest years and I regret not realizing it at the time.



Cabinman

So how about some more pictures! Any thing GM&O and the B&O at E. St. Louis! Hardly any photos from the Cone yard area!
Brian

railtrekker Wrote:
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> So how about some more pictures! Any thing GM&O
> and the B&O at E. St. Louis! Hardly any photos
> from the Cone yard area!
> Brian

It might be nice to add some screen-shots (STILLS) from the movie here on TO.COM for all of those who have never seen the MOVIE that the 1980s/1990s TV series was inspired from -- if that's not a violation of copyright laws; there were numerous railroad scenes in the movie, including a slow freight with a bunch of N&W coal cars, some scenes in an old roundhouse, a chase scene along a mainline with a VERY fast freight with open-side auto racks and lots more -- and of course, the opening and closing shots of the movie with the red, GM&O diesel-powered passenger trains.

I'm told that this was the primary inspiration for the opening sequence in the TV series starring Carol O'Connor as Sheriff Gillespie, and that O'Connor himself was a railfan. I actually saw one episode in particular in which he was sitting down to dinner with a lady-friend, and she wondered why he had chosen that particular eater. About that time, a CSX freight train blew by outside the window (it was night time in the story at that point), and he told her that he (--and I'm not certain this wording is exact--) was calmed by watching passing trains. Interesting........

the T.V series was filmed somewhere in georgia

the series was filmed on an CSX line

in the series there was an episode where an old chessie gp-7/9 in chesie yellow was seen

filming locations for the series as per indb.com internet movie data base

http://imdb.com/title/tt0094484/locations

> the T.V series was filmed somewhere in georgia

It changed locations during the long run of the series. Some seasons were in Louisiana.

> in the series there was an episode where an old
> chessie gp-7/9 in chesie yellow was seen

I saw one episode with a scene on a shortline with several old Geeps in Chessie paint.

The episode with the restaurant was in Conyers, Ga on the CSX Ga. Subdivision. The shortline scenes were in Covington, Ga on the Great Walton Railroad. Chessie painted GP9's were long gone on CSX by then, and none ever made it to Georgia anyway. Was a good show.

The first season was filmed in Hammond, LA and then it was filmed in Covington, GA. The Sparta police station was actually the Covington library.