Explain... (ex-CNW F7 in NIRC paint)

http://www.drgw.net/~f40c/rta/308.html

Was that a NWSMTD type of thing or what? Could someone give me some more info on it?

According to "Diesels of the CNW" by Paul Withers, the animal in the picture, an F7A, was built by EMD in 1949, and began life as CNW 4083C. It was assigned to the passenger fleet, but mostly ran in commuter service. In 1971, it was renumbered to 414, then sold to RTA six years later, where it was renumbered again to NIRC (pre-Metra) 308, as shown in the picture. IIRC, this unit is at the IRM, which, incidentally, had another F7 in NIRC/Metra colors restored to its original CNW colors earlier this year. See the thread below for more details...

http://railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=22866

That, sir, is a rare find. Legacy locomotives generally went from their legacy paint-jobs directly to Metra bright blue. What I think we have there is a F7 that was repainted before the Metra trademark was invented. However, it's in Metra paint, not RTA paint. I've never seen anything just lettered for NIRC before. I bet even MikeF has never seen that before, and he's kind of the oracle around here.

In Covered Wagons Mystique on page 56 there is a picture of 305 in the same paint. the pick was taken in 1989. my guess is that NIRC was the first name before Metra.

bingo - NIRC was born of the RTA shakeup that occured around 1983 , and the Metra service mark was invented by some marketing MBA's a year later. I have never seen an modern passenger service locomotive in this scheme, however. Note there is not a red roof, a later trademark of Metra locomotives in regular service - switchers retained their solid blue paint.

Tadman wrote:I bet even MikeF has never seen that before, and he's kind of the oracle around here.

Hate to disappoint you, Tadman, but MikeF has a few pics of that engine and its twin, 305, in his collection.

You guys have the story straight regarding NIRC. It should also be noted that the switch engines while in RTA paint were sublettered for NIRC, and I believe even today they are still referred to as "NIRC 1," "NIRC 2," etc. Caboose 2001 also wore the solid light blue NIRC paint for a while. It also had the NIRC logo (a stylized F unit nose with "NIRC" beneath) on its end doors. If anybody wants to see some pictures of NIRC equipment from my collection, PM or e-mail me. I'm not going to post them publicly here because I don't have permission from the original photographers.

Just one more little note regarding the NIRC F units ... as far as I can surmise, they were used only in RTA work service, as they were by Metra. All the pictures I've seen of them in NIRC paint show them sitting in the yard at Blue Island, often coupled to caboose 2001, never on a passenger train.

They came close to being used at least once. Around a decade ago there was an excursion down the SWS to Manhattan (obviously long before there was a Metra station there). I don't remember who ran the excursion, but it was in commemoration of the Wabash being the former operator of the line. In the ticket brochure in the mail, it explained that the two ex-C&NW F7s would be pulling the train, but when the day arrived the train pulled up with two F40s. On-board I asked a guy in charge why the F-units weren't up front, and he said there was red tape getting the proper insurance on them. It would seem likely that they weren't insured for anything other than work train service.

They did run on a passenger train at least one time. Both of them were on a fan trip that ran to Elgin for the NRHS convention in 1993. I was on that trip we rode the train to elgin and took buses to IRM. 305 was on the lead followed by 308 and 110. There is a funny story about the trip Metra wanted an F40PH on the train incase the F7s broke down but as luck would have it 110 broke down in Bensenville I rember that the lights went off inside the cars. So the Fs got to fun the train on their own. We were supposed to have them on the return trip but scince 110 broke down they sent the train in regular service back to Chicago. The train can be seen in the Pentrex tape The Chicago Steam Celebration about the 1993 convention.

I was always a bit surprised that RTA didn't just slap the Metra logo on the baby-blue F40's and leave them alone - paint jobs are expensive. As far as seventies paintjobs go, the RTA scheme was one of the better ones.

The more I look at the picture of 308, the more I wonder if that isn't the RTA blue. The Metra blue seems to be deeper. Admittedly, I have not seen it in person.

The F7 that's still in Metra paint is pretty faded at this point (so the paint by now looks very RTA-ish), but that's a good question. I've seen pictures when the paint on those E8s Metra used to have was fresh, and the colors were definitely proper for the Metra scheme. You'd think they would have done the same thing for the F7s, but maybe not.

I'm thinking maybe it was experimental, and they used the RTA blue without the stripes and NIRC lettering. That might also explain the lack of the red roof.

The blue used on the NIRC engines is indeed the same light blue as used by RTA. When they were painted for Metra, they received the standard Metra medium blue with red roofs. The 305 still wears its Metra paint, which by now has faded to the point it almost looks like the NIRC/RTA shade.

Oddly enough, before they were painted for Metra, the switch engines wore RTA blue with the brown and red stripes as on the F40's, with either "Regional Transportation Authority" or "Northeast Illinois Railroad Corporation" in white letters in the red stripe along the hood. Again, if anyone wants to see pictures, PM or e-mail me.

When I was at IRM this summer, I noticed on 308 that there was a spot where the Metra paint was peeling away and you can see the RTA/NIRC paint below that. If that's not enough, the RTA/NIRC paint is peeling away and you can see the CNW yellow underneath that. I've got a close up picture of it. If I can post is somewhere, I post a link to it.

Brad