Did the Southern run PA1 and PB1's at any time and if so in what service, freight or passenger and in what color scheme and road numbers?

-- George Armistead (garmist@prodigy.net), January 24, 2001

Answers

George--no, they had 6 PA3s (PA2's according to the Cheney and Sweetland book). The main difference was the grill below the roofline which did not have the sweeping treatment behind the cab door as on the PA1.

-- Larry (ljpuckett@starpower.net), January 24, 2001.

George- According to DIESELS OF THE SOUTHERN RAILWAY SOU ran only PA's and these were PA3 units. They were built between 10/53 and 12/53 and were numbered 6900-6905. They were owned by subsidiary CNO&TP and were used in passenger service. I've only seen photos of these units in the green scheme (simplified post-war).

-- Ray Brown (bbrown21@columbus.rr.com), July 22, 2002.

Actually, two of the PAs received black paint. 6901 was black with the small dulux gold lettering (same as green scheme), but 6904 was repainted black with the large metallic gold numbers and lettering. The remainder of the PAs went to scrap in green paint.

-- Tom Alderman (Topa12283@aol.com), July 26, 2002.

George:

The PA's were used in limited service across Tennessee between Memphis and Bristol, and there's a good photo of two of them meeting outside Memphis in Parker Lamb's book "Classic Diesels of the South."

-- Eric Miller (emiller72us@yahoo.com), August 03, 2002.