from Yahoo Mopac group, March 2013

My grandfather, E.K. Campbell was the engineer on the DE from its maiden run until his retirement in 1945. He spent 47 years with the Missouri Pacific and was selected as one of the engineers to demonstrate the E-series of the then new EMD streamliner over the MoPac rails. He never received a demerit in his entire career. My brother and I used to ride the DE in the cab and in the baggage section of this unique locomotive. Unfortunately, he left hardly any memorabilia from his career on the DE, except for a couple of photos taken at his retirement in front of the 7100. He was living in Memphis at the time he was assigned to the DE, but later moved to Helena, AR, (my birthplace) during 1943 or 44.

One of my memorable tales about his DE days involved him leaving Helena at around 6:15 p.m. one summer day, headed out southward toward McGehee. When the DE was going through what is now the White River Management area, a deer jumped onto the tracks and stood his ground. My grandfather laid down on the horn, hoping to spook the deer off of the tracks, but to no avail (must have been a Muslim deer hell-bent on suicide). The DE struck the deer and bounced him on the ROW. My grandfather stopped the DE, backed it up, and his crew got the deer and put it in the baggage section. Remarkably, the deer sustained very little bruising. During the stop in McGehee, my grandfather phoned a local butcher and made arrangements for the deer to be dressed out, wrapped and stored in dry ice; the deer was picked up two days later on the DE’s trip north to Memphis via Helena. My grandfather phoned my grandmother and told her to pickup the deer meat at the Helena depot. My grandfather dead-headed back to Helena two days later and, along with his two daughters and their families living in Helena, sat down to a sumptuous venison feast. And that, my friend, was my first meal eating deer meat and I haven’t stopped eating since.

I treasure the memory of my grandfather. I was born in December, 1938, and he died in 1949. Too soon for me to have him share his recollections of his railroad days. I’m just grateful that I knew him and for all that he was. I am proud that he was the engineer on the DE.
Ellis Joe Ogden
Bryant, AR

---

Was wondering if the Delta Eagle cars and locomotive were used anywhere
else on the system. Did they stray from Louisiana?
Jerry Michels

---

Jerry,
The answer is at least a qualified yes. I have consists in 1958 that document grill coach 732 was used at least 10 times on eastbound Train 12 Colorado Eagle departing KC from 11/2/58 to 12/30/58. However, I have found no evidence of locomotive 7100 or mail-coach 760 being used on any KC to St. Louis trains.
Ed Hawkins

---

Engine 7100 was used out on the Lincoln-Union connection to the Missouri River
Eagle if I remember right.
Bill Hoss

---

7100 is on a passenger train on page 87 in Doug Brush’s book on the Northern Kansas Division.
Charlie Duckworth

---

The Delta Eagle cars were used across the system, especially the
grill-chair car. Need to do some research on the mail-coach, I think it
was rebuilt as a grill as well. Perhaps Jim Ogden has the details.

7100 ended it’s days running on the connection between Little Rock and Hot
Springs. At Little Rock 7100 would be swapped-out for an E-7 of two GP-7s
because of the extra cars added for Memphis from #8. I have lost the color
photo I shot of 7100 in this service. 8^(

The scrap yard in North Little Rock was it’s final service!
Dick Ryker

---

Was able to quickly find my diagrams! Mail coach 760 was rebuilt to a grill-coach and was renumbered 561. Notably, the rebuild include an eight-seat lunch counter plus the typical four coach-seat table arrangement. Makes one wonder what specific service was intended for the car. No other MoPac car had eight lunch counter seats. Delta Eagle Grill coach 732 was renumbered to 560. [see separate MPHS Forum thread on car 561/760.]
Dick Ryker

---

The 7100 EMD AA6 (single 1,000 hp prime mover) was assigned to the Delta Eagle to Atchison, KS where it pulled #519/510 for many years until discontinuance in November, 1960. The Delta Eagle was cut back in 1954 so that is when the engine was moved to the Northern Kansas Division. The space where a typical E6 would house a second prime mover became baggage space. Old railroaders in the Atchison shops were very complimentary of the engine, although the limited horsepower kept it on hand for local passenger service.
Doug Brush

---

Speculation on locomotive 7100 assignments…

The MP magazine for April 1955 announced that motorcar 670 had been assigned to the remainder of the Delta Eagle run (Helena-McGehee); given publication lead times, this suggests an assignment in February or March 1955, after 670 was repowered with Cummins engines. 7100 likely went to the Northern Kansas Division at that time, as Doug Brush indicates. However, 7100 was photographed back in Helena in October 1958 (Route of the Eagles, page 78) when it was filling in with a heavyweight combine for the 670. Also, newspaper accounts of the last run of the train in February 1960 describe a two-car train, “…the locomotive-express car, and the baggage-passenger car,” and indeed, last run photos show the crew standing in front of 7100.
See Arkansas Railroader, Feb 2006 <http://www.trainweather.com/February2006WebCompact.PDF>

The discontinuance petition filed with the Arkansas PSC in October 1959, described the train as a single unit motorcar (obviously the 670), so 670 was still “officially” assigned at that time. It is known that 670 was prone to mechanical failure in its later years, and for at least part of that time, it appears that 7100 was on hand as a replacement.

In March-April 1960, dispatcher sheets show 7100 frequently running on trains 219-220 between Memphis and Hot Springs, usually in the company of 7000. The unit was retired and subsequently scrapped in early 1962.

An early MPHS Eagle suggests that the 7100 was used for a time on the Gurdon-El Dorado-Monroe train, but that train was cut south of El Dorado on April 26, 1955. Gene Hull, in the Feb 2006 Arkansas Railroader, states that 7100 pulled the last passenger run between El Dorado and Monroe. Do any photographs of this last run exist?

A possible, speculative sequence for 7100 might have been…. displaced from the Delta Eagle in Feb-Mar 1955 and reassigned to trains 821-822 between El Dorado and Monroe. Displaced from this service in late April 1955, and reassigned to the Northern Kansas Division. Here is where the assignments become hazy. It appears that the unit was back in Arkansas by 1960, and perhaps by October 1958 or earlier, utilized in local passenger pools out of Little Rock. After the last remnant of the Delta Eagle came off in February 1960, it apparently ran in Memphis-Hot Springs service until mid-late 1961 when it was set aside and scrapped in early 1962.

Can anyone provide other actual dates of operation on other runs, particularly in Kansas, so that the history of this unique locomotive might be pieced together?

Bill Pollard

---

The actual date of the last MP run of 519/510 was November 14, 1960. The ICC order for the final trip was November 12, but extended two days, ending on the 14th. The Atchison paper published it on the 15th.
Doug Brush