Nostalgia & History > Katy U-23Bs

All three of Katy's GE U-23Bs.

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Quite a catch!

I'd say you have a fairly rare picture there. My late friend Tony Fey also got a shot of those 3 GEs very early in their service for the Katy. There is quite a bit of dialogue/information in this thread :

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3372358,3372358#msg-3372358

Lance/199



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/11/19 19:11 by santafe199.

This looks like a companion to an early service shot by Dick Kuelbs shot taken 080473, Parson KS. Very cool and rare indeed.
Purportedly Katy didn't "take" to these GE's very well back then. 

The one time I visited Parsons, all 3 U23-Bs were in the deadline along with the 401B. I was able to photograph 4 of Katy's rare locomotives in one stop!

Yup, rare indeed. I never saw more than 2 at once, usually only one in consist before they were laid up. Did witness the 351 handling the Choctaw local by itself one day with the Trainmaster following closly in his wagon. All EMD MKT did not know how to maintain them, and didn't. The answer of how they ended up with them seems to be "the golf course deal" mentioned in the earlier thread. This further reinforces the story that I had heard at the time about GE being a big shipper with MKT and pressuring them to at least try our product. They did.

Wow I forgot they had these and after reading the related thread wow what a short life for them! Here’s one thing I have pondered. Why did they have their RS3’s re-engined come back with dynamic brakes? From what I know about the Katy they didn’t have many locomotives so equipped until later.

GN599 Wrote:
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> Wow I forgot they had these and after reading the
> related thread wow what a short life for them!
> Here’s one thing I have pondered. Why did they
> have their RS3’s re-engined come back with
> dynamic brakes? From what I know about the Katy
> they didn’t have many locomotives so equipped
> until later.

Some did and some didn't have DB's - the few completed before 1958 did not have DB's. 
The intention was to use them on road freights so I guess it made sense to at least try them
out and determine their value.

MKT served the coal fired power plant near Fayatteville Texas owned by the Lower Colorado River Authority. That facility gets Powder River coal and I thought they were bought for coal train service and pooled with Burlington Northern power. Union Pacific still serves the power plant and LCRA maintains the FPPX and LCRX lettered coal trains.

Ricky Dolifka
Austin, Texas.