cross post from yahoo group Wabash M-1 4-8-2's Posted by: "Chet French" Thu Dec 7, 2006 1:37 pm (PST) Groups A little more about the M-1, 2800's. I was going through records to determine the last month of service for each of the M-1's to better get an idea of what time period I want my model railroad to represent. I have three Hallmark M-1's and wanted to be able to run them alongside the Athearn Genesis F7's during 1951. The 2800's became early victims of the Wabash's dieselization plans which really began to take effect in 1950. The A-B-A sets of F7's and Alco FA1's arrived in 1949 and were used mainly on trains between North Kansas City and Montpelier. Fifteen sets of F7 A-A's were delivered in June and July 1950, and divided between the three divisions for use on the other districts. Six sets, 1140-1145, went to the Montpelier Div., seven sets, 1146-1152, to the Moberly Div., and two, 1153-1154, to the Decatur Div. At this time 19 M-1's were assigned to the Montpelier Div., and six to the Decatur Div. Nine Montpelier Div. M-1's ended service in 1950, with 2813 being the first one in January, and 2815 being the last in December. The nine included; 2801, 2802, 2807, 2809, 2811, 2812, 2813, 2815, and 2816. The ten remaining Montpelier M-1's amd the six Decatur M-1's were still in service at the beginning of 1951. 2819 and 2822, the latter a Decatur Div. engine, lasted through March. 2800, 2803, 2804, and 2806, all Montpelier engines were done by the end of April. Decatur 2817 and Montpelier 2818 worked through May. This left only four M-1's on each division in service on June 1, 1951, just prior to the railroad receiving another 12 more A-A sets of F7's, 1165-1176, in June and July. On the Montpelier Div., the 2805 and 2808 finished their careers at the end of June, and the 2810 last one month longer. The 2814 became the last Montpelier M-1 in service, working through October. On the Decatur Div., the 2821 ended service in August, the 2824 in September, and the 2823 in Dec. 1951. The 2820 became the last M-1 in service seeing service into March 1952. The 2820 ran a total of 2992 miles in Jan., 194 miles in Feb., and 181 miles in March. Being in service did not mean the engines were working daily. Some may have only made a few trips during a month. Two engines, 2808 and 2817 show zero mileage on their last shopping, so apparently they went into the shop during the summer of 1951 for class 3, 4, or 5 repairs and were never used after they came out of the shop. The 2900 O-1 class did fare better with 12 of the 25 engines seeing service in 1952. Chet French Dixon, IL
