Were any low nose Frisco U25Bs ever painted in the dark blue scheme? What was that dark blue color anyway? Thanks.
Black. I don't think any of them ever appeared in any paint scheme than mandarin and white. I've been wrong before though. Charlie
Yes, I am wrong. I was trying to remember from my books without looking at them. That is the Frisco "black & yellow" paint scheme. Charlie
All of the hinose U25Bs and the first batch of lo-nose U25Bs were delivered to Frisco in the black/yellow scheme. Later on, all were eventually repainted into the mandarin orange/white colors. The hi-nose U25s left the roster in 1976 or so as trade-ins on the B30-7s. There WAS a paint scheme that involved blue- in the 1940s, some of the Baldwin VO1000s were painted dark blue & white with "FRISCO LINES" in red on the white center stripe. Check out Marre and Harper's 'Frisco Diesel Power", and IIRC Marre's "Frisco In Color" for pics.
I thought they were traded in in '77. The B30-7s were built in Dec 77. But then... what's this? http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=124691 A high-hood U25B, "Frisco" lettering painted out but still in Mandarin and white and carrying its Frisco number, on Conrail in '78! Who owned it now?
You're right- it was 1977. Same year the B30s came on-line. GE leased them to Conrail for a short period of time during that road's formative years, when they were looking for anything that could load up & pull tonnage. After being returned to the lessor, they were all scrapped. BTW, the B30-7s were the first of that production model, and sported Blomberg trucks.
Ah... the days when Conrail leased CN widenose engines! But, anyway, when did CR return the highnose U25Bs to GE?
While the B30-7s were the first B30-7 units, all of the Frisco's U25Bs, U30Bs, and B30-7s ran on AAR Type B road trucks (i.e. GE's standard road trucks). None of the Frisco GE fleet was equiped with Blomberg trucks at any point in time while on the Frisco (or the BN for that matter). Paul
You're right, they WERE standard Type A trucks, I went back & looked at my Frisco Diesel Power book and had a Homer moment (ya know, D-OH!!!!) But I did remember NOT seeing any FB-2 trucks at all.
I can't find a lot of examples, but you are correct, it was available on the U23B and U18B. Most of the examples of these locomtoives I've been able to find are equiped with AAR Type B trucks. The best reference I've been able to find find indicates the FB-2 truck was a high adhesion option. It doesn't appear to have been the standard truck when the -7 line was introduced. In any event, the Frisco didn't end up with any of them, and the trucks on the units they traded in for the B30-7s stayed on those units, so the Frisco B30-7s were equiped with new trucks. (As mentioned already, the Frisco B30-7s were the first order for the model. The units traded in on them were U25Bs 800-807, the Frisco's High hood U25Bs - which were leaed out to CONRAIL after the trade in). Paul
IIRC, Frisco also got one of the first (if not the very first) order for U25Bs, and only UP and Frisco had the high-nose units.
Yes, this is correct. The Frisco U25B fleet actually included two 4 unit sets of demonstrators (SLSF 804-807 and 812-815) The first production U25B (SLSF804) The last U25B built (SLSF831) Paul
You must have a copy of Frisco Diesel Power as well, since it sounds like that's where you got the info out of. And that's not a bad thing at all....
