Been looking at photos of Southern and haven't seen any "Foreign" diesels in any of the consist's. Did Southern ever use any foreign power? Thanks
Posted by richarddschivley (Member # 274) on :
I am 99.9% sure Southern Railroad never used any, foreign power!!!! The Southern was so sucessful and well-funded, it never was short of power. Whenever the trains came into Southern's domain, Southern power was added, no foreign-power ran on southern tracks, that I have ever heard of. I did take the time to try and research this question, and this was the general consensus of several, old-timer's who worked for the Southern Railroad. Richard
Posted by Stumpie (Member # 228) on :
Thanks, that seems to be the answer I've gotten from all the places I posted. Thank you
Posted by cnotp (Member # 342) on :
Well, actually, GT used to have run-through power head south onto the KY Division from Cincinnati. My friend's dad has a ton of photos of ALL GT and/or DT&I power on "Southern" trains.
Generally speaking, though, I don't remember seeing much foreign power when I was a kid watching the trains in the few years before the SOU/NW merger.
------------------ Jeff http://www.trainweb.org/cnotp
Posted by rmiller (Member # 341) on :
quote:Originally posted by cnotp: Generally speaking, though, I don't remember seeing much foreign power when I was a kid watching the trains in the few years before the SOU/NW merger. [/B]
But, wouldn't you say that run through power is a relatively new development. As a kid fanning the Q and Santa Fe in the 50s, I never recall seeing foreign power operating on either line unless it was a reroute caused by a derailment.
Time to call me an "old timer" I guess.
Posted by cnotp (Member # 342) on :
I can't say whether run-throughs are new or not as I have absolutely no clue, but the run-throughs I mentioned were dated in the late '70s and early '80s (up to the merger in 1982 at least).
Foreign power was pretty rare as I can recall on the Southern, but not all that rare on the L & N. Up in my neck of the woods on the EK Subdivision, I can recall seeing lots of foreign power when I was a kid.
The L & N (at least in Eastern Kentucky) seemed like they were always broke in the late 60's and early 70's and when the trains weren't falling off the track at the yard in Ravenna, so it wasn't all that rare for them to be short of power as well.
The most common obviously was SCL power and other members of the 'family', but there was also a pretty constant flow of power from some of the former merger partners as well.
