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| FT-A's 100C and 101C were renumbered to 102L and 103L and new FT-B's
numbered 100C, 101C, 102ABC and 103ABC, plus another new A-B-B-B set
numbered 104LABC, were also built. By September 1941 the Santa Fe
had five A-B-B-B sets of FT's in operation numbered 100LABC through
104LABC. Although EMC's (by this time it had become EMD - Electro-Motive
Division of General Motors Corp.) intent was to market the FT as AB
sets permanently coupled by a drawbar, the Santa Fe early on requested
couplers on all units. Subsequently, all of the Santa Fe's FT's, with
the possible exception of the original two A-B-B-A sets, were delivered
with couplers on both ends of all units, greatly adding to the flexibility
of these units and making the shifting around of locomotive consists
much easier.
The 100LABC set was well-photographed as it worked across the system with a dynamometer car in its very early days of service and testing. Because of all these early photos, it is generally not understood by most Santa Fe fans that its A-B-B-A configuration was quickly changed to A-B-B-B. The number 100 set spent the rest of its days in service with a single FT-A 100L as there was never another FT-A built with or renumbered to number 100C. All locomotives from 105LABC through 151 LABC were built between March of 1942 and June of 1944 as A-B-B-B sets rather than A-B-B-A as commonly thought. By the time the 152LABC set was being built, the labor unions had relented and agreed that only one crew per diesel locomotive was required even if it contained more than one cab. Thereafter, all locomotives from 152LABC and up were arranged in A-B-B-A configuration and most of the earlier locomotives were changed to A-B-B-A sets as well. |
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| To accomplish this, boosters 100C through 151C were renumbered to numbers 152AB and upwards and new cab units were built and some older cab units were renumbered to go with the renumbered B-units from the early locomotive sets to create locomotives 152LABC through 179LABC. For some reason, new cab units were never built to go with units 100LAB through 104LAB. This resulted in A-B-B sets 100LAB through 104LAB and four-unit sets 105LABC through 179LABC in service, most being A-B-B-A. |
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