July 3, 1949 two B&O E7A locomotives, number #72A and #78 were involved in a collision near Deer Park, MD. One of the locomotives had the cab destroyed in the collision. The other locomotive was in a trailing position but there is no number boards on the nose to id which unit it was.

Information I have found shows the #72A was renumbered to #1422. I have found one photo on line that is dated 08/27/57 of the #1422 with the typical bulldog nose mounted number boards.

I've been unable to find any photos of the #78 which was renumbered to #1427.

By the renumberings, I'm lead to believe the the locomotives were rebuilt or repaired after this incident and returned to service.

Is there information somewhere that would show when the E7A fleet was renumbered and is the nose mounted number boards on the #1422 part of a fleet wide upgrade or was it the locomotive that lost it's cab in the collision and the number boards were part of the rebuilding? Also when was the B&O E7A fleet retired?

The accident report only ID's the locomotive numbers and not their position in the train make-up.

B&O E7A
#72A s/n: 2902 built 10/45, renumbered #1422
#78 s/n: 2907 built 10/45, renumbered #1427

Thank You in advance.

Tim Wilson

Your one stop source for anything Baltimore and Ohio internal combustion related:

James Mischke
Panther Hollow Press
9446 Bent Road NE
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87019-638

jmischke@worldnet.att.net

Thank You Gerald!

Trackside Along the B&O with Edward P. Griffith, by Walter A. Appel, Morning Sun Books, 2000, has a nice, rather large photo of 1427 dated 4-July-1957 at Washington Union Station.

Diesel Locomotive Rosters, the Railroad Magazine Series, Wayner Publications, has a B&O Roster dated 28-July-1965. It shows 1422, 1427, and many other E-7s (but not all of them), as "no longer on the active roster", and "either have been, or will be, traded in for new units"

JR

Mr. Mischke and I have exchanged a couple of emails today.

His records show the #72A was renumbered #1424, (not #1422) in 1957 and was sold for scrap in 1968

The #78 was renumbered to #1429 in 1957 and sold to EMD in 1964 for credit on an SD35 order.

BUT, we have not been able to pin down which unit was leading at the time of the accident..

Through two different Facebook contacts this week I found out that the son of the Fireman killed in the collision later became a Tower Operator at Z Tower in West Keyser, and the fireman's wife would later be my Music Teacher in High School......

Tim W.

Per Mr. Mischke, he had xeroxed photographs made decades ago at B&OHS or B&O Museum, of a newly fabricated E-unit cab on a flat car. Has angled numberboards like an E8. His handwritten note says from a Deer Park wreck, B&O writing says applied to 78.

So this part of the mystery has been solved. The #78 was leading and the #72A was trailing. After the derailment the #78 was repaired with a new cab and served the B&O for another 15 years before being used as trade-ins.

Tomorrow will be the 65th. anniversary of the accident.

Thank You everyone