Penn Central F units in freight service?

[AstroKnight]

I'm planning on buying an A-B set of Penn Central F units for my HO scale railroad, but I'm not sure if the real ones were used for freight as well as passenger service. Can anybody help me?


This is my second post, so don't barrage me with hate if I screwed something up.

 

[Bruette]

Welcome, we are glad to have you!

Don't worry about hate on this forum. Lots of nice people here.

It just so happens we have an expert on Penn Central, one of my favorite railroads. @Boris can help you when he comes along. There are others who can help you as well.

 

[Boris]

F Units (FT, F2,3,5,7,and 9); were primarily freight units. Everywhere, (except the N&W that never had any until the Wabash Merger). Yes you can use a Penn Central F7 A+B in freight service.
Yes some F units were also used in passenger service, on certain roads, but they were predominately freight units.

 

[dave1905]

By the 1970's the only PC F units I ever saw were in freight service and the only RDG F units I ever saw were in passenger service (although both had units in the past in both services).

 

[KriegslokBR52]

To add to that, Pennsy also ordered 40 units of FP7 class. Those were longer than standard F series by about 4 feet, to be able to carry extra water tank for water heater in passenger service. Several railroads had those, but Pennsy ones are easily distinguished by the visible cylindrical tank right behind the front truck. A few even lasted until the creation of Conrail, but if they were used in passenger service during PC is hard to say.

 

[AstroKnight]

F Units (FT, F2,3,5,7,and 9); were primarily freight units. Everywhere, (except the N&W that never had any until the Wabash Merger). Yes you can use a Penn Central F7 A+B in freight service.
Yes some F units were also used in passenger service, on certain roads, but they were predominately freight units.

Thank you so much. This really helped a lot.

 

[AstroKnight]

Welcome, we are glad to have you!

Don't worry about hate on this forum. Lots of nice people here.

It just so happens we have an expert on Penn Central, one of my favorite railroads. @Boris can help you when he comes along. There are others who can help you as well.

Thanks, I’m just used to people being jerks online. This is a big change from what I know

 

[AstroKnight]

Welcome, we are glad to have you!

Don't worry about hate on this forum. Lots of nice people here.

It just so happens we have an expert on Penn Central, one of my favorite railroads. @Boris can help you when he comes along. There are others who can help you as well.

I'm planning on buying an A-B set of Penn Central F units for my HO scale railroad, but I'm not sure if the real ones were used for freight as well as passenger service. Can anybody help me?


This is my second post, so don't barrage me with hate if I screwed something up.

Ok, if you guys were wondering, here’s the models I plan on purchasing: https://www.walthers.com/emd-f7-a-b-set-esu-sound-and-dcc-penn-central-1675-3479

 

[skyliner]

Ok, if you guys were wondering, here’s the models I plan on purchasing: https://www.walthers.com/emd-f7-a-b-set-esu-sound-and-dcc-penn-central-1675-3479

Here's a bunch of pictures of that actual locomotive in service:

Pictures of PC 1675

Pictures of PC 1675, Model: F7A

www.rrpicturearchives.net

And if you look here at the full directory of PC F7A pictures, you'll see almost all are in freight service.

PC - Penn Central Locomotive Roster - Railroad Picture Archives.NET

Penn Central Photographic Roster, Locomotive Model: F7A

www.rrpicturearchives.net

Have fun with your new locomotives, feel free to post pictures when you get them here or in the Mail Call thread.

 

[Iron Horseman]

Ok, if you guys were wondering, here’s the models I plan on purchasing: https://www.walthers.com/emd-f7-a-b-set-esu-sound-and-dcc-penn-central-1675-3479

Looks like a nice unit.

 

[MikeGTW]

some kind of terrible pictures

 

[AstroKnight]

Here's a bunch of pictures of that actual locomotive in service:

Pictures of PC 1675

Pictures of PC 1675, Model: F7A

www.rrpicturearchives.net

And if you look here at the full directory of PC F7A pictures, you'll see almost all are in freight service.

PC - Penn Central Locomotive Roster - Railroad Picture Archives.NET

Penn Central Photographic Roster, Locomotive Model: F7A

www.rrpicturearchives.net

Have fun with your new locomotives, feel free to post pictures when you get them here or in the Mail Call thread.

I’m not quite sure if I will be purchasing them yet.

 

[bnsf971]

EMD did a lot of creative marketing of those engines over the span of them being sold new. Originally the F was meant to stand for "Fifteen hundred", which was their original horsepower rating per unit. After a while, when horsepower ratings increased, and the F could no longer be the first letter of its horsepower, they decided "F is for Freight".

 

[bnsf971]

If you want to go further down the trivia rabbit hole, the N in the NW2 switch engine originally stood for Nine Hundred horsepower. The W stood for Welded frame.
The E in E unit stood for Eighteen hundred horsepower, and the S in the SW series stood for Six hundred horsepower.

 

[AstroKnight]

I'm planning on buying an A-B set of Penn Central F units for my HO scale railroad, but I'm not sure if the real ones were used for freight as well as passenger service. Can anybody help me?


This is my second post, so don't barrage me with hate if I screwed something up.

Ok, if you guys were wondering, here’s the models I plan on purchasing: https://www.walthers.com/emd-f7-a-b-set-esu-sound-and-dcc-penn-central-1675-3479

I'm planning on buying an A-B set of Penn Central F units for my HO scale railroad, but I'm not sure if the real ones were used for freight as well as passenger service. Can anybody help me?


This is my second post, so don't barrage me with hate if I screwed something up.

Ok, here’s another question; When conrail inherited these f units (I understand they didn’t last long), did they also use them for freight?

 

[KriegslokBR52]

Yes Conrail used them for very few years. They were gone off the roster by the time 80s rolled around. But amazingly one of them got the Dress Blues, but with only the number and CR stencils.