B&O P7 pacifics on freight

Joe Collias' book "The Last of Steam" pictures #5309 (painted blue!) doubleheaded with Mountain #5559 on a Timesaver freight in August 1956, on p.207. The author stated that #'s 5306 and 5309 finished out their days doubleheading freights on the Chicago Division.

Thanks for that Mark. Much appreciated. As far as I'm aware all the P7s were blue right till the end of steam.But as I found out from Ed Bommer here on the forum, Engine 106 (ex 5308) was in a crossing accident late in 1956,was repaired and given a coat of freight black which she wore till withdrawal early in 1957. Its sometimes very hard to tell the difference between black and blue in old colour pics ,but Ed's comments on 106 are backed up by colour photos and a video shot I have seen of 106 in this time frame and she certainly looks to be in a new coat of black. Looks good in it too. I have attached pics of the real 5306 and my G scale rehashed Aristocraft 5306. 3rd picture shows 5309 as she was in 1956 at Willard. Clearly in all over blue enamel. The two locos ,same class ,different variants, quite a sight double heading on freight eh ?    DAVY     

Davy - Just bumped into some photos on-line of B&O P7 4-6-2's. Check this website (there are a whole batch of other roads depicted, too - a very neat website and a good representation of a very nice railfan's life's work): http://godfatherrails.com/home/home.asp  Go to the site map, then go to "list of all railroads", where you will find B&O. Believe John took these shots at the Robey Street roundhouse in Chicago, operated by the B&OCT, for passenger train motive power.

Hi Mark, thanks for the tip off. I've actually seen those B&O P7 pics before but I didn't realise there was so much other stuff by the same guy. I wish I could get my hands on those photos of the P7s on freight but so far no luck. Anyway ,thanks again. Cheers  DAVY