• James Mann
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  • Added 19 Jun 2020
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CF7 #2627 . Ran When Parked

... I first came upon this CF7 in January of 2017. She was sitting quietly and looking quite forlorn, off to the side of the Colebrookdale Railroad's (CRR) main running track in Boyertown, Pennsylvania. #2627 started life in 1946, as shiny, streamlined, Santa Fe EMD F3 cab unit, 21L... in classic red and silver, "Warbonnet" livery, the proud face of "Super Chiefs". Beginning in 1972... Santa Fe chopped and rebuilt about 200 of these now old F3's into CF7, wide box cab, narrow hood switchers, giving engineers better visibility when spotting cars during yard duty. These units emerged, repainted as blue and yellow Warbonnets... which, on the #2627 has now faded into a paleish cream color and a sort of nondescript grayish green, punctuated by huge swabs of rust... although the distinctive shape of the warbonnet design still remained visible along the sides of the long hood, framing large "M C H" letters... and someone had kept up with the "Safety Yellow" paint. Midwest Coal Handling (MCH) had taken possession of the unit in 1984. She then went to the Clinton Terminal Railroad (CTR) in the Nineties, working hard... until she suddenly showed up in 2015, with great expectations, at the Colebrookdale yard. Old #2627 disappeared from Colebrookdale about a year after I last saw her... and now it seems, she's turned up again, as of 2020, at the Minnesota Transportation Museum as a parts donor for ex-Great Northern (GN) F7 #454A, before she's finally scrapped. How could I not paint this locomotive ??? Say Good Bye...

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Anonymous Guest

Francie Aguilera Simonson 08 Feb 2023

I like this one (and your others as well).

Mineke Reinders 01 Sep 2021

Great story and lovely work! Glad you were able to preserve this beauty in watercolor.

Richard Szkutnik 24 Nov 2020

Yours watercolor artwork is great I love evry one

Rachel Reichert 21 Jun 2020

Intersting work and subject

Sara Radman yazar 20 Jun 2020

Very interesting work .