| It's 8 A.M. on a beautiful December morning along the Southern Railway's BACK BELT at Metairie Road, and we are greeted by the rare and wonderful sight of two Kansas City Southern F-units approaching with an eastbound train. The 4051 is a 3-porthole F3 built in 1947 and the 4061 is a 1951 F7 rebuilt with F9 side panels in 1956. This is KCS No. 55 and it will terminate at the Southern's Oliver Yard, on the east side of New Orleans. The train usually passes here in the late afternoon or early evening, so it is running about 12-16 hours late. In August 1982 the KCS began keeping a pair of F-units at New Orleans for situations just like this. The normal procedure was for the power that arrived on a southbound train to go out on that train's northbound counterpart, so the locomotives that arrived on No. 55 in the afternoon -- usually three geeps or a geep/slug/geep set -- would return north on No. 56 early the next day. Yesterday, No. 55 was running very late; so during the night the two F-units took No. 56 north until they met No. 55 and swapped trains. We dont know where the exchange took place, but the cab units went at least as far as Baton Rouge.Before the F-units arrived, the railroad would use a pair of locally-assigned SW1500s for this relief work; but this adversely affected the jobs that the switchers worked. Keeping a pair of elderly cab units here didn't tie up newer road power, and it allowed the switchers to handle their regular jobs without complications. The F-units were also used on heavy transfer runs. In March 1983 the schedule of one train -- No. 84 -- was changed so that there would always be a set of road power available in New Orleans, and the cab units were sent elsewhere. |