| Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad F2 157C westbound at Naperville, Illinois on April 14, 1962, photograph by Chuck Zeiler. It is pictured here leading four GP-20's (three are UP units) on the CGI (Chicago Grand Island) expedited freight that featured pooled locomotives from the CB&Q and UP. The F2 would have to lead because of its Manual Transition. The CB&Q received ten F2's in July 1946 (built on EMD Order E648) as 150A-154A and 155C-159C. This particular locomotive was built during July 1946 (c/n 3023) and traded to EMD as credit on an order of GP35's during July 1964. The first five CB&Q FT A/B/B/A sets 100-104 were broken up into A/B sets and renumbered and mated with a single F2, producing 10 semi-permanently coupled FTA/B-F2 4050 horsepower locomotives (or, in CB&Q parlance, a 4050 hp motor). At this time a second headlight was added to the nose door of the FT's which had been delivered with a single headlight. The F2's were the final CB&Q F style locomotive delivered with the "freight-style" pilot. The F2 was a transitional design from the FT to the F3, retaining some of the FT's internal features (the FT's 1350 hp 16-cylinder 567A diesel with belt-driven auxiliaries was replaced with a 1500 hp model 567B with gear-driven auxiliaries, but because the FT's D8 main generator was retained, the output was limited to 1350 hp), and introduced the new carbody featuring three equally-spaced portholes on the side and four roof mounted radiator cooling fans driven by electric motors (replacing the belt drive in the FT's). The FT's belt-driven traction motor blower was also electrically powered. This carbody carried over to the first run (or Phase) of the F3 production. Only 74 F2A's and 30 F2B's were built. |