MKT-Hybrid Before Being Hybrid Was Cool
MKT FP7A with 2 BLW/EMD "hybrids" in San Antonio, Texas in April 1968
Before the flood of Powder River Basin coal lifted the fortunes of the Katy, the Katy was always in dire financial straits. One look at the R-O-W in the above photo illustrates the Katy’s situation. Money was so tight the Katy went nearly 15 years without acquiring new power, finally acquiring the 170 class GP40’s in 1967 or so. (Could that be a record for a Class 1’s?)
In the late ’50’s, the Katy was hurting for reliable power, as their Alco, Baldwin and F-M power was spending more time out of service than in. As they were a bit short to afford EMD’s then current latest and greatest,they were one of the first takers for EMD’s re-powering program which consisted of clients sending in their old, tired non EMD units and EMD converting these old units into GP9’s, at least from the frame up, and the cab forward. (remember, the long hood was the F end back then) All 17 of Katy’s AS-16’s underwent the procedure between 1958 and 1960.
The re-powered AS-16’s were less than stellar performers.They were sold to the C&NW in 1972. I guess the C&NW was more desperate (or broke) then the Katy. Interestingly, their other re-builds, RS3’s and DS-4-4-1000’s, had much more success and were still active when the UP acquired the Katy in 1988.
Update: Thanks to reader Kevin Cavanaugh for pointing out that the lead unit in the above image is an FP7A, not an F7A as I originally noted.
Welcome to Southwestern Rails….
Welcome to the newest railroad blog on the web.
I’m Robert Pierce, a professional photographer, railfan, and Dad. I’ve lived in Sugar Land, Texas for over 15 years now, observing and photographing the local and regional rail scene.
My goal is to provide new material regularly. The majority of the content here will be still photos, but I will be presenting videos from time to time.
As you might guess from the name of this blog, my focus here will be anything related to railroads that serve the Southwestern U.S, with an emphasis on the Houston area.
As the dominant roads that serve this region, UP and BNSF, serve regions well outside of the Southwest United States. Coverage of these roads will sometimes bleed over into areas outside of the targeted region.
Then again, I may go way off track and cover subjects from anywhere in North America.
Either way, I’ll work hard to provide a variety of topics that are interesting to railfans, and railroaders. So please check back regularly to see what’s up with Southwest Rails….
P.S. – I welcome your comments regarding the subjects presented here, especially as it pertains to additions or corrections to the information presented. You can reach me via the comments area at the end of each post.
Southwest Rails 