The Santa Fe CF7 is an

EMD F-unit EMD F-units are a line of diesel-electric locomotives produced between November 1939 and November 1960 by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and General Motors-Diesel Division. Final assembly for all F-units was at the GM-EMD plant at La Grang ...

railroad locomotive that has had its streamlined carbody removed and replaced with a custom-made, "general purpose" body in order to adapt the unit for switching duty. All of the conversions were performed by the

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison and Topeka, Kansas, and ...

Cleburne, Texas Cleburne is a city in and the county seat of Johnson County, Texas, United States. As of the 2010 census, its population was 29,337. The city is named in honor of Patrick Cleburne, a Confederate general. Lake Pat Cleburne, the reservoir that pro ...

, workshops between February 1970 and 1978. This was Santa Fe's most notable remanufacturing project, with 233 completed between 1970 - March 1978.Santa Fe's born-again road-switchers ''Railway Age'' September 14, 1981 pages 40-44, 106 The program was initiated in response to a system-wide need for more than 200 additional four-axle diesel

road switcher A road switcher is a type of railroad locomotive designed to both haul railcars in mainline service and shunt them in railroad yards. Both type and term are North American in origin, although similar types have been used elsewhere. A road s ...

s to meet projected motive power demands on

branch line A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industri ...

s and secondary main lines. Santa Fe's aging fleet of F7 units were approaching retirement age in 1970. These units were remanufactured into switchers and named CF7. Santa Fe used them for a decade and sold many of them to short lines around the states. Many of those were still being used as of 2003.

In service

The CF7s worked within all segments of the Santa Fe system. While most saw action switching cars and transporting local freight, others could be found in

multiple unit A multiple-unit train or simply multiple unit (MU) is a self-propelled train composed of one or more carriages joined together, which when coupled to another multiple unit can be controlled by a single driver, with multiple-unit train contr ...

consists hauling mainline drags. The units distinguished themselves working on

potash Potash () includes various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water-soluble form.

trains between Clovis and

Carlsbad, New Mexico Carlsbad ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Eddy County, New Mexico, Eddy County, New Mexico, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the city population was 32,238. Carlsbad is centered at the intersection of U.S. R ...

; Nos. 2612–2625, all equipped with remote control equipment (RCE), were typically "mated" to road slugs (converted cabless F-units). CF7s also powered

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...

trains across the Plains Division. The Santa Fe had planned in the mid-1980s to renumber its CF7 fleet from 2649–2417 to 1131–1000 and repaint the units in the new Kodachrome paint scheme, all in preparation for the planned

Southern Pacific Santa Fe Railroad Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, ...

merger. However, the

Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to eliminat ...

subsequently denied the merger application, and no CF7s were decorated in the new livery. Amtrak used some of them, with mixed results.

Afterlife

Changing philosophies regarding motive power expenditures led the Santa Fe to begin trimming its CF7 roster in 1984. The majority of the locomotives were sold for as little as $20,000 to short-line and regional railroads such as the Rail Link, Inc., the

York Railway The York Railway is a shortline railroad operating of track in and near York, Pennsylvania. The company was created in 1999 through a consolidation of Yorkrail, Inc. and the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad (M&P), both owned by the Emons Rail ...

, and the

Maryland & Delaware Railroad The Maryland and Delaware Railroad Company is a Class III short-line railroad, formed in 1977 to operate several branch lines of the former Penn Central Railroad in both Maryland and Delaware, United States. These branches were omitted from th ...

(6 were involved in wrecks and 3 others sent directly to the scrap yards), though

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

and

GE Transportation GE Transportation is a division of Wabtec. It was known as GE Rail and owned by General Electric until sold to Wabtec on February 25, 2019. The organization manufactures equipment for the railroad, marine, mining, drilling and energy generation ...

were among the major initial purchasers. By 1987, the company had divested itself of all of its CF7s. These locomotives have well withstood the test of time, and have long outlived their projected service lives, two times, both as original F-units and as rebuilds. As of 2017, all CF7s still in service are over 60 years old.

Preservation

Several CF7s are preserved and operational on many tourist and local trains. Among them are: #2546 at the

Kentucky Railway Museum The Kentucky Railway Museum, now located in New Haven, Kentucky, United States, is a non-profit railroad museum dedicated to educating the public regarding the history and heritage of Kentucky's railroads and the people who built them. Originall ...

, and #2571 at the

Oklahoma Railway Museum The Oklahoma Railway Museum is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt non-profit organization in Oklahoma City. It is self-funded through memberships, train fares, special events, donations, and grants for restoration projects. The growing membership, of approxim ...

References

* Includes background and modeling information, equipment rosters, and a photo gallery. * * * * *

External links

{{EMD diesels Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway locomotives B-B locomotives Electro-Motive Diesel locomotives Diesel-electric locomotives of the United States Railway locomotives introduced in 1970 Rebuilt locomotives Standard gauge locomotives of the United States

In service

Afterlife

Preservation

See also

References

Further reading

External links