Its once-shiny nose blasted by Texas sun and grit, Missouri Pacific 803 and two other F7’s idle alongside the engine house at Fort Worth’s Lancaster Yard, waiting for their next assignment, probably an evening run down to Austin. By March of 1969, the twenty-year old F’s are assigned mostly to Texas and Louisiana lines. An early adopter of diesels, MoP acquired 180 F7 A and B units from 1949 to 1951, and together with earlier arrival of 247 GP7s they pretty much ended steam power on the road.
