Thursday, April 02, 2015

B&LE F7 #712A in Vancouver, 04-67 with Ditch Lights(!), by Peter Cox

Received the following via email from our correspondent in NW Pennsylvania.

Thanks to Steve Timko and those who shared with him a set of Canadian slides from The Peter Cox Collection, here is B&LE F7  #712A and an unidentified B unit (that may well be #712B) outside a shop on the Canadian Pacific in Vancouver, British Columbia. Note the snow-capped mountain peaks in the background. Also note the unfortunate marring of the classic B&LE nose wings to attach temporary, Canadian-compliant ditch lights to the unit so it can lead trains on CP, nearly a half-century ago.

Craig Rutherford commented to me back in 2011 that some slides he had from the mid-through-late Sixties showed B&LE F7As and Bs on lease to power-short CP Rail. CPR leased s
everal B&LE units, plus B&M and UP engines because, "Most CPR power at the time was dedicated to hauling wheat for Russia, while leased power handled secondary trains."

Craig
had notes on some slides in his collection that also showed B&LE #712A
the following year on the then newly-merged Penn Central at the former New York Central West Detroit shops and fueling racks. In April, 1968, #712A was there at the shops and then, in June of that year, #712A was photographed at the fueling rack.