Check out the size of that headlight in the door. Love those FTs. I’m wonder how and why they have been so ignored over the years. I would love to see one all done up with the leather belts running the cooling fans and the whole nine yards.
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I admit that I am an old man of 86, but these early shots so have so much going for them.
Skirts still on the fuel tanks, locomotives looking like they just came from the builder, and no telephoto lenses.
I thank you again George for these excellent images from Otto Perry.
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| Posted by SES on March 4, 2023 | |
Well, I don't know much about the FT but I think since they were the prototype cowl body diesel, they were a bit of an oddball. They were probably a little less versatile because they were semi-permanently coupled as a 2 unit A-B set, making turn around and such more difficult whereas the later cowl units were their own individual unit. And unlike all the other cowl F-units, the wheel base and rear wheel arrangement was different. Note the rear truck on both A and B units were tucked up further under the body and not close to the rear. I'm guessing these inefficiencies, among some other possible things, may have prompted the railroads to use the FT's they had as trade-ins or retire them a little earlier compared to other EMD diesels. At that time, I'm guessing nobody may have had the forethought to save very many of them. I do think the original demonstrator is at the Transportation Museum or something, isn't it? Seems like I recall at least one FT set exists.
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Neat photo, I think the only FT's that were saved are the set that is at the Museum of Transportation in the Midwest, they have one set of A-B units painted in the GM demo colors. Thanks for showing us this wonderful photo.
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