It's August 1961 and FA-1 #507 and RS-27 #310 are in the Winona,
Minnesota yard, the western end of the railroad.
GBW #310 was less than a
year old when Deb
Fifield captured it while working the Winona yard. At the time
of delivery the #310 was the highest-horsepower-per-axle diesel in
operation in the United States.
On the other hand, FA-1 GBW #507 had little more than a year of
service left when this photo was taken. Its sister #506 had
already been traded in on the purchase of GBW #310 and the remaining
FA-1s would be retired as other high-horsepower locos arrived in the
early 1960s.
There are several interesting things in this photo... notice how much
larger the steel 40' boxcars are compared to the steam-era boxcars and
reefers coupled behind them? The pilot in front of the FA-1 seems
to be a different color red than the rest of the locomotive; was this a
result of it being repaired and repainted at some time?
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