Saw this on the F units list. It's a lengthy posting, but notes where the last of the Kansas City Southern's F units have ended up. plus finally solves the mystery of what happened to the two former KCS F unit hulks that sat several years at Limon, Colorado (near the bottom of the text).

<Besides the 4 F units that KCS bought second hand from Canada for the
business train, and the 4 F units that they recently bought from Rail
Cruise
America......

Originally, KCS owned a total of 79 F units, both A&B units, that spent
years
hauling freight and passengers. The most complete roster I have found
is
located in the Marre/Summers book, Kansas City Southern in the Deramus
Era. This
roster has lots of names, dates, and places, but there seems to be one
big
flaw(and several inaccurracies) that I am trying to figure out.

According to this roster, about 21 units were disposed of during the
60's(traded to EMD), about 18 were rebuilt and were given the 4000
series numbers(this
was done mostly in 1978...these are the white units that stayed on the
roster
the longest...the B units became slugs......an ABBA set pulled the
Tidewater
Turn for years). About 33 units were disposed of in the 70's(Mostly B
units,
mostly sold to Precision National Corporation). This accounts for about
72
units.....

But in other research I've done, it shows that in 1970(some sources say
1971), there were 30 KCS F units(cab units, not Bs) that were sold to
the Chicago
and North Western via PNC, to become C&NW 230-259. There is no mention
of the
C&NW bulk purchase in the Marre/Sommers roster, and no group of Fs
that large
that left the roster at the same time. An inquiring mind(me) needs to
figure
this out. Any help would be appreciated..We all know that the C&NW
bought the
last 4 E units from KCS in Jan 1970. Those were broked by PNC.

Among the surviving F units, everyone has probably seen the unit on
display
at Decatur, AR(originally 73D, last KCS 4060). There is also a unit on
display
at Hugo, OK(70A, last KCS 4055). I've never seen one picture of this
unit on
the net, compared to dozens of the one at Decatur. The Kiamachi RR(who
donated
the display unit at Hugo) also had unit 30A(last KCS 4050) at their
shops in
Hugo. Can anyone give a firsthand account of this unit being scrapped?
The F
units numbered in the 30 series had steam boilers in them for use with
the
passenger trains. Unit 4050, as well as a few others, are listed as
having been
sold to the Central California Railroad Museum, which didn't happen,
and doesn't
exist. I think this was just a name made up by some prospective railfan
collector/buyer.

At last report, unit 59D(last KCS 4054) was at Lone Star, TX,
technically
owned by Lone Star Steel. I think some employees pulled this one out of
the scrap
line for salvation. I was told its in bad shape and tucked so far back
in the
woods on abandoned track, that its not going anywhere, anytime soon. On
the
roster this one is also listed as being sold to the Central California
Railroad
Museum.

Last but not least, unit 74D(last KCS 4061) is at the Tenn Valley
Railroad
Museum in Chattanooga. It was discovered one day a few years ago among
Steamtown's collection of junk at Tobyhanna, PA. The TVRRM rescued it
from there. This
unit is listed as having been sold to Mountain Diesel(a Denver based
locomotive broker) and I have seen references that it was sold to VIA
in Canada as
well. I have no idea how it ended up in Pennsylvania(?).

Would love to hear from anyone who has first hand accounts of the
demise of
any KCS F unit. I know that units 71A(last KCS 4057) and 76A(last KCS
4063)
were photographed in the boneyard next to Deramus yard in 1988:

http://kansascitysouthern.homestead.com ... LSCRAP.jpg

Sometime after that, they showed up pictured in TRAINS magazine sitting
set
out and abandoned in Limon, CO. According to the Marre/Sommers roster,
these
units were sold to Mountain Diesel, which makes sense. They apparently
brokered
them to the tourist short line that goes through the Royal Gorge. The
tourist
line has two ex C&NW F units and needed the KCS units for replacement
parts.
The needed parts were removed at some location out in Colorado, and
then the
remaining hulks were handed over to the NRHS chapter in Pueblo, which
dismantled
them the rest of the way(filled two gondola cars with scrap). The NRHS
chapter got the proceeds of the scrap sale. Its sad to see any unit go,
but in this
case, it kept two more units running, and helped a railfan group
financially.

Send me any information on KCS F unit dispositions.

Greg>

For those of you keeping track of such information, the Kansas City Southern Historical Society has a roster of F-units on their website at:

http://www.kcshs.org/schedule/subs/images/rosters/kcsf.htm

It would be a nice thing to see this information incorporated into this roster.

Tom Cornillie