Between May 1972 and December 1974 CN’s Transcona, Manitoba Shops rebuilt 30 F units to extend their service life. Twenty-nine were drawn from the ranks of CN’s F7A fleet, they were joined by a single Grand Trunk Western F3A. Ten F7B locomotives were also rebuilt under this program. No. 9105 in the foreground was the product of a subsequent program which converted nine rebuilt F7As to B-unit status with blanked off cabs, this was done between May 1983 and December 1984. By September 7 1985 No. 9105 and at least seven other rebuilt F7 locomotives are out of service and stored in the former Northern Alberta Railways yard in Edmonton, Alberta.
I remember being on the old F’s at Dauphin, Manitoba with my father Len. Engineers like Mike Pocatello and Vince Konopski were gracious enough to invite us on board when train 93 to Churchill stopped at the station Sunday evenings. I remember the sights and smells plus how hot it was in the cab during the summer. The Cowan Subdivision to Swan River was home to pairs of F7 units in the mid-1980s. I was still catching the odd one on freights by 1987.