Accompanied by the whine of dynamic breaks, Fort Worth & Denver F7A 752D with an F7B, a pair of SD9s and another F7 A-B combination, roll through Littleton on the final miles of their long trek from Fort Worth to Denver on an overcast July 8, 1967. The combined 9,500 horsepower here gives the road the kind of heft that it never enjoyed in steam days. Local railfans have dubbed such combinations “Perlman mallets” in honor of Alfred E. Perlman, Rio Grande’s invented general manager, who instituted the practice to replace that road’s powerful 2-8-8-2s. Burlington subsidiary Fort Worth & Denver bought three ABBA sets of F7s in August of 1950, the last F-units acquired by the Q or its subsidiaries. They will vanish from the roster in a year, traded in on the SD40’s and U30C’s.
Not
just heritage schemes, not just commemorative schemes - this album is devoted to some of the world's most interesting paint schemes, past or present.
