This website has been archived from TrainWeb.org/jfuhrtrain to TrainWeb.US/jfuhrtrain.

  This web site is the result of the search for understanding of the vagaries of the renumberings of Santa Fe's fleet of F3, F7 and F9 covered wagons.  I began consulting my sources for information that would lead to the unraveling of the mysteries about why some of the numbers had been assigned to as many as three different units that wore them at various times.
  To begin to understand this, I built an Excel spreadsheet that followed all the renumberings, with annotations for wrecks, trade-ins, F7B road slugs, yard slugs, F7 and CF7 Slug Mothers, RCE receiver cars, and other events that affected one or more of the units, including the ultimate rebuild of 233 of them into CF7s by the Cleburne shops. On each of the class pages linked above, you can trace the origins and ultimate dispositions of each of the units in the class.  The two links for the CF7s list them in numerical order and sorted by the original number. 

 To help follow the initial timing of the F-units arrival in the Santa Fe fleet, check out the Timeline and  F-unit Phase Charts pages.
 To get some insights into the renumbering and accompanying configuration changes over time, see this Perspective
from Loren B. Joplin..

  Every unit of these classes has its own story.  These web pages can be used to piece it together.  They were built by gathering together the information from all these sources and I have been successful in accounting for each and every F3A, F7A and F9A in the roster.  (I was even able to succesfully predict one of the renumberings before finding documentation for it!)  Alas, the same is not true for the boosters, as many of them went their way to oblivion between the 1975 and 1985 publishing dates of Joe McMillan's two classic references.  Perhaps Joe will shed more light on this in a future reprint? 

  Navigation through these pages is coordinated by the Main Index.  If you proceded there, you will be able to browse to areas within the class pages;  To get to information about a particular unit, simply click on its nearest number in the Main Index and you will be directed to the appropriate section of the class page.  To return to the Main Index, just use your browser's  "back" button.

Example of how the renumbering affected  individual unit numbers-

  To follow one number, consider 306B:  306B[1st] was delivered in 1950.  It was renumbered to the 325 Class as 325B in late 1952, and replaced by a new unit, 306B[2nd] before year end.  In November of 1969, 306B[2nd] was selected to become RCE Receiver car number 27.  The number 306B was to remain vacant from that time until 1971, when former F3B number 34A would be assigned as 306B[3rd], which it carried until 1973, when it was renumbered to 344B.  This information is contained in the 300 class and 16 class pages.

Example of how the renumbering affected an individual unit-

  As another example, consider F3 28C, built in June, 1948.  Its information is contained, in turn, on the 16 class, 300 class, 325 class and CF7 pages.  From the 16 class page, we see its build date, and then by 1971, it had been upgraded to F7 status and in 1971 was renumbered as 301C.  Later, (from the 300 class page) we see that around 1974 it would be regeared as a dual-service unit and renumbered as 345C.  On the 325 class page, we find that the unit was repainted with a new yellow bonnet livery, then retired to the CF7 rebuild program to emerge from Cleburne in December of 1976 as CF7 number 2473.  On the CF7 pages, we find that 2473 was one of the last to be rebuilt with a rounded cab.  (It would eventually be sold to EconoRail.)

  After I came to some closure on these units I started to look at the FTs. These were plagued by even more renumberings than the later types.  The FT renumberings are even more complex, as some numbers appeared on both A and B units, as can be seen by this initial chart which resulted from my first attempts to track these units.  Now a full chart of the FT number histories, based on tracking the builder's numbers, is available.  Click here to view.

  If you can provide more information to help fill in the blanks in any of these charts, please feel free to email me & I will update them. I am particularly interested in learning the fate of the B units.

  -Jim Fuhrman