Really cool to see and hear these Icons start up and run. Be sure to visit this museum when you're in town. Visit them online for details. Support these facilities because without them our history is forgotten. Thank you for watching.
Oh wow. Man those F7s are just absolutely gorgeous! Some of the most beautiful and amazing American Engineering ever. A real little piece of the USA right here. Would love to go don and see these some day. On my list now.
Incredible engineering. Pure genius behind it all. And the Art work on the loco is pure loco !! The best Ive seen in a while. Great all the way around.
@@joeystrains.9316 I lived in Toledo, Ohio in the early 1990’s. I was headed back home from my parents and passed the train station on the way. I saw an unusual passenger train parked at the station so I went to investigate. It was a super fancy train with a variety of passenger cars. It was lit up inside as it was night. It looked like a palace. The train was pulled by two EMD E units. The entire train was painted in a dark green with Conrail as the railroad. The entire train was immaculate. I wonder what became of the E units and passenger cars.
@@dougobrien4877 unfortunately, the majority of retired locomotives are scrapped. It's as sad as a 55 Chevy or 69 Camaro being crushed. That's what is special about seeing an icon like this running.
I've stood right in in front of these two F7's. You are one of the luckiest people ever to be there while they are running because they hardly ever run them. Great video of the the Museum.
Made me feel old bud! I'm 58 now and remember when my first HO train set had an F7 (or F3) as the loco. Then I went on to the "F" series. Imagine all the people that rode these monsters! Shout-out to those who operated them!! Hard to imagine that switcher was an 80 tonner!!
I had the Santa Fe war bonnet Lionel Super O gauge loco in the early 60's. My favorite toy. This brings back so many wonderful memories. Thanx for posting!
@@joeystrains.9316 nothing extra ,I was wearing my outfit with my engineer cap that said engineer on it, the conductor saw it and said would you like to ride in the engine and the rest was history, of course I videoed it
The first railroad I went to work for had more than a dozen of these after they had been thru Cleburne. They were called CF-7s and they sounded, acted and felt like a F7. They kinda looked like a U18-B though with the short, squatty nose and long engine hood.
@@UnionCountyPhotography the Cleburne shops of the Santa Fe pulled off a literal miracle when they engineered the CF7. The EMD F unit was a monocoque design-the body of the locomotive was the structure. Cleburne had to engineer from scratch a GP-like frame, and attached spare EMD hood unit parts to the back. The ATSF Ry approached EMD about making new locomotives from traded in F7 components (generator, prime mover, trucks, traction motors) but EMD turned them down flat. It was the success of two projects-Santa Fe's CF7's and Illinois Central GP10's, that convinced EMD to get into the rebuilding game. EMD's first rebuilt product was the GP15T.
@@brentboswell1294 I remember seeing the ICG Paducah Geeps in Orange & White as an kid in the 1980s going through Willow Springs Illinois ( Small Suburb of Chicago ) on the former GM&O Chicago to St. Louis line with some former GM&O locomotives. Also when some were repainted Red & White for Chicago Central.
@@IndustrialParrot2816 in the early 1970's, the Santa Fe had a shortage of power suitable for branchlines and secondary trains. They had a plethora of F units, however by this time management considered cowl body locomotives unsuitable for anything other than passenger trains and through freight trains. In the past, EMD had rebuilt really old, obsolete E units (like any E unit that had a model lower than E7) into more modern power for the railroad (the E8M). Management thought that they could convince EMD to do the same, converting traded F units into new hood units, reusing the major components. However, EMD wasn't keen at all on that idea. So when EMD said no, Santa Fe turned to their talented major repair shops, and got their money's worth out of their substantial F7 fleet, both passenger and freight. Santa Fe didn't need the higher horsepower ratings of units like the GP38 on the trains that they intended those units for. They also used them to replace switchers in yards, and that is why the Santa Fe never ordered third generation switch engines like SW1500's or MP15's from EMD.
I remember decades ago when this train was in private ownership by a man in Houston that use to run weekend excursions from the Houston Heights railroad station to Galveston and back.
Thank you for sharing. F-units are my favorite American locomotive. I recommend visiting the WP museum at Portola, where you can operate a real F7. Here in Norway we can still see the NoHAB locomotives with the EMD 567 prime mover inside. I love the sound!
Thanks for sharing! Half a century old equipment, yet still awesome and impressive alike! Good luck, and stay healthy. Salutes from Innsbruck, Austria, Europe
I was born in 1960 and lived near Oklahoma City. I remember many times as a young boy in the mid '60s my mother and I taking the Santa Fe to see her sister in Houston. Great memories.
The sound brings back memories of when I used to hang out at the station when passenger trains stopped there, NP F9's and F7's. I can still smell them.
there is no way you can mistake the sound of a 1950's EMD 16-567B starting! damn, my childhood memories are flooding back to me with this starting. I was born in 1976, and I lived in Texas at that time, but I did hear a lot of 16-567B's in our Union Pacific GP7's from traded in F7s. Damn....the childhood memories, nostalgia.
@@UnionCountyPhotography yes they do, I'm about 3/4 of a mile from the track near a bayou and trees and I can hear the chugging through it all. Hi ball territory.
The most beautiful Diesel locomotives the F7 EMD General Motors Built engines so classic and powerful 16 cylinders ever built. Real trains for passengers of a bygone era in railroad transport from the 1940's nostalgic.
I am a self-admitted Lionel freak, and have several F3 diesel sets from 1952, 1953, and 1954. Your unit was an F7, and actually pulled the Texas Chief passenger train.
@@paulmatulavich7321 I'm a Lionel freak myself; 7 sets of 2343s and one set of 2353s with 3 B units. Recently acquired a 2356 ABA set. Check out my other videos. Thanks.
@@joeystrains.9316 Sounds awesome! The one set that eludes me is #2190W from 1952. Called the Super Speedliner Set. Was the first set to have 2343s pulling the new aluminum passenger cars. Want the set in mint condition, so hard to find one.
I lived in Houston for 12 years and of course visited Galveston multiple times and I never knew Galveston had a train museum. Dang it! Thanks for the wonderful video.
hi, greetings from england, wish we had these F7 locos here in england,,no wonder Glen Campbell was singing about Galverstone. i can see why, super locos.
Nice looking locomotives. I worked at a power plant in North Texas that had two F9 B units for diesel generators. They were cool. EMD V16 2 strokes. full speed was 720 rpm with a 1250kw (if I remember correctly) generator. They had about 3 foot of 6 or 8 inch exhaust with a clapper. At full speed they just roared. you couldn't hear the cylinders firing any more. Definitely had to wear plugs and muffs running them.
@@joeystrains.9316 They were simple just had a little control room with a switch panel. There there was the main engine room. The generator was on one end of the engine and drive shaft came out the other side to a gear box that ran the cooling fan in the roof that pulled air through the radiators on either side of the unit. I worked for a city and they had bought them out of the Florida keys somewhere and brought them back. they cut the trucks off and put them down on one railroad ties. being stationary we were unable to get full load out of them due to lack of airflow. We use to run them up to 900 kw and could hold it there and not over heat.
I love Galveston Railroad Museum. I go every time i'm on the island. I have a video somewhere of me at the controls of that 80-tonner during a short run.
I wished I knew where some gp15s were at that was working so I can video tape them roaringup maybe somebody could do that there used to be a switch crew in Lawton Oklahoma that had one it was Burlington Northern I used to love going down there hearing them switch on
It was reported a few years ago after a hurricane flooded Galveston( the Museum had 3-5 ft. of water submerging the traction motors on these engines) that they may never run again. I hope the date on this posting is accurate. Great video.
These aren't the same locomotives. The ones that were damaged were the two that were used on the 'Texas Limited' excursion trains and were painted silver and yellow.
Nice F7A engines. They were made the same year(1953) as the 2 FP7 engines we have on the Verde Canyon Railroad. Our were built for the Alaska Railroad originally. Only 2 of 8 left running in the country
*I saw a line up of these or maybe F-9s at Union Station Los Angeles in the 1970s as a teen. Bunch of A & B Units ( A B A sets? ). One A Unit had the skull and fur of a Rabbit smashed on its cow catcher. I think crews left it as some type of morbid souvenir! LOL When the pneumatics went off on these things, it sounded like a shot gun! Guess this one was not pressured up enough yet?*
What a beautiful and fine machine! I am a fan of classic trains since my childhood. This is the most eye catching diesel locomotive in my opinion, The steam engine at the beginning too. Does someone know what model it is? Very nice video, thank you for sharing with us!
Nice Locomotives! Start ups remind me of the power plant I operated in the service. They were 2 16 cylinder supercharged units from early 60s era. Huge engines & loved the sound. Under load exhaust not visible a testament to how well they were built & maintained.
There is an F7 still running in between Wisconsin and Michigan, on the escanaba and lake superior railroad. There is a RU-vid channel by a rail fan which covers the railroad.
Fun fact. These are former Canadian national units. But with a santa fe appearance. The actual ONLY original two santa fe f7 units are a A and B unit are in. The California state railroad museum and I think they were operational
