Nostalgia & History > F40 Friday: 1985 in Kansas City

The Ann Rutledge awaiting departure.

B&O Bill



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/22 05:50 by bandob.

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Great overhead angle.
Bob

The guy in the fireman's seat might be W. Dean Marr, one of the regularly assigned MoP (UP) engineers.   Body type and the cap fits him.   Head end crews would regularly swap seats.  Can't remember when he retired, but it was around this time, before the Amtrak take-over of crews anyway.    And with a nod to Rodney Zona,  engineers worked KC to Sedalia, where the St. Louis engineer would take over.   Firemen changed in Jeff City.

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I fired occasionally on Amtrak out of Emporia, during the time they converted from the SDP40F's with steam heat, to the F40's. I liked the big 500's, but absolutely hated the F40's. Always reved up wide open. Horrible to listen to. Well guess what? I'm back on an F40 again after all these years! The 310 is leased for 4 months to the Midland Railroad on Baldwin, KS on the Snowglobe Express, and I'm an engineer there. Loud as ever, rolling along at 10 mph. We have a couple old Geeps's on the south end to pull it that direction. Nice and quiet on that end.

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Back in 2004, I was graciously treated to a cab ride on the Midland. I had been a volunteer engineer at the B&O Railroad Museum. Really nice folks there. Here's a view approaching the depot.

B&OBill

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