F9 #5771 is coupled with cabless F9 B unit #5762 (originally DRGW #5753). The D&RGW bought four F9 A units from EMD in 1955 (#5531, #5571, #5771 & #5774) and four F9 B units (#5772, #5773, #5753 & #5763). #5771 hauled freight and passenger services between Denver, CO, and Salt Lake City, UT. #5771 and its two B units (#5772 & #5773) were also the primary power for the Rio Grande Zephyr, the last non-Amtrak long distance train in the US after the Southern ceased running the Southern Crescent from New Orleans in 1979. Between December 1983 and March 1984, they powered the D&RGW'S Ski Train, which ran fifty-six miles from Union Station in Denver, CO, to the ski resort of Winter Park and return each day. The train was inaugurated in 1940 and climbed about 4,000 feet passing through thirty tunnels including 6.2 mile Moffat Tunnel, the highest railroad tunnel in the US. After their short stint on the Ski Train, the two units performed a little more general service and were then retired. At that time, #5571 was the last operational F unit on the Rio Grande. They were donated to the Colorado Railroad Museum by the Southern Pacific, successor to the D&RGW, in 1996. #5771 is 50' 8" long and weighs 230,000 lbs. #5762 is 50' long and weighs 228,00 lbs. A Winton 567C 16 cylinder prime mover drove a 1,750 hp GM D12D generator in both units to power four GM D37 traction motors delivering 40,000 lbs continuous tractive effort at 9.3 mph with a top speed of 65 mph. Ninety-nine F9 A units and one hundred and fifty-six B units, including forty-six built by GMD in Ontario, Canada, were produced by between 1953 and 1960. They were the last in a long line of EMD units designed to haul freight (the "F" stood for freight) starting with the FT in 1939. In total, four thousand, seven hundred and thirty-six F A and two thousand, nine hundred and six F B units were outshopped.
#99201 was built as Colorado & Southern #3 by Cooke Locomotive & Machine Works in 1900. The Cooke Locomotive & Machine Works opened in 1852 as Danforth-Cooke in Paterson, NJ. It built steam locomotives as well as snow plows until it merged with seven other manufacturers to form the American Locomotive Company (Alco) in 1901. Alco continued building locomotives and snow plows at the plant until it was closed in 1926. There are Cooke/Alco snow plows on the Steamtown page of this website, the Lake Superior Railroad Museum page, the Northwestern Railway Museum, Northern Nevada Railroad Museum and Mid-Continent Railway Museum pages. #3 was later renumbered CS #0270 and then #99201. It was converted from 36" gauge to standard gauge soon after delivery, back to 36" in 1935 and then returned to standard gauge in 1943. It was rebuilt in 1949. The rotary mechanism at the front was operated by a self-contained steam engine inside the car, but the plow could not move under its own power. It had to be pushed by three or four locomotives. Snow was sucked inside the rotary blades and shot to the side of the track from a chute behind the headlight. The engine weighs 167,220 lbs. The tender weighs 56,620 lbs light.
