Does anyone know why two Long Island F units (numbered 261 and 258) are at the Ft. Myers yard of the Seminole Gulf Railroad along with the Metro liner passenger cars? Thanks! Rick Walls

-- Rick Walls (canoe46@yahoo.com), November 27, 2000

Answers

My information is the units will be refurbished and placed on the opposite ends of their dinner trains, aka push-pull type of operation. I was lucky enought to be on duty the day they arrived at Yeoman yard. I talked to the SGLR manager about when they could expect the units in Arcadia (their interchange point). They were placed on a Tampa-Winston extra and then on a road switcher that serves Arcadia 6 days a week. I have several pics of the units at the old loco shop at Uceta.

-- walt rogers (wjriii@gte.net), March 29, 2001.

The last time I went by, the LIRR units and cars were sitting exactly as they had been for about a year. The 619 is an F9, ex Milw 126A; the 621 is an F7, ex B&O 4599. There is a group at Egroups.com called lirr hep which has photos of these units, on the Long Island. On his 'Mainlines East ' website, Kevin Andrusia has photos of the units on their way to the Seminole Gulf. Click on 'Florida Color', they are on page 12.

-- Bill Donahue (BillD53A@aol.com), November 30, 2000.

I went back home and to my chagrin found that the LIRR had four F units used as power packs rather than two. These units had their prime movers and generators removed by the LIRR some time after they went into service and replaced by Penske M-G sets. In addition to the four F units, LIRR had a grand total of 19 ALCO FA units used as power packs. After LIRR modified some of its MP-15s to serve as power packs, some of the FA units were retired and once it retired its old fleet with new bi-levels, the remaining FA and F units were retired.

-- Michael W. Savchak (Savchak @MNR.org), November 28, 2000.

The Long Island never did own F units as prime movers. The two units are F units (ex Milwaukee I believe-I can check for those who want to know the specifics)-which the LIRR used to provide headend power for its now retired fleet of commutter coaches. Unlike other HEP units, LIRR used the 600 volt DC output from the generator to power its coaches, a good portion of which were ex DC Multiple unit cars to begin with and thus wired for 600 V DC. At a later date, the original diesel engines and generators were replaced with smaller MG sets. These were the only two F units in a fleet of ALCO FA units. In addition to supplying HEP, the units also served as control cabs for push pull use.

-- Michael W. Savchak (Savchak @MNR.org), November 27, 2000.

The units are gutted(no engines,generators or anything else). They have been there nearly a year.

-- J.Oates (jlosal@mindspring.com), November 27, 2000.