I was one of the crew on this project, working for "Mike's Inc" out of Finley WA. The locos were owned by Western Rail and the scrapping was done by Mike under contract to Western Rail. Western Rail kept many parts, including engines and generators. The rest was recycled. We especially concentrated on getting all the copper out. Watco issued a temporary track lease for this project and we had to wear hard hats, safety glasses and steel toe boots. The Watco people were great to work with, very helpful, and made our job much easier. The only fans who visited were a couple of fellows on Saturday morning.

Nobody really believed that we could make two CF7s go away in 4 days, but we did it. One of the Watco guys came by on Monday to see what the status was and he was amazed. We worked "dawn to dusk" and once we had them stripped to the frames we had two cutters working on the frames.

I also personally did much of the cleanup and spent several hours raking and picking up any residue from the work area. I do appreciate the positive comments that previous posters had made in this regard. We were also very careful about any fluid spillage. One of the units had not had its crankcase drained of oil and this was a bit tricky to do, but we got it done.

Basically, here is the sequence followed:
-radiators and fans removed from roof
-carbody doors cut off
-fuel tanks cut off and removed
-remainder of long hood cut up and removed
-equipment rack cut out and removed
-diesel engine lifted
-generator lifted
-air compressor pulled
-low nose cut off and removed
-cab cut free and removed
-electrical cabinet cut free and removed
-traction motors disconnected and high voltage wiring pulled out of frame
-sides of frame cut away to reduce frame weight
Once the cabs and electrical cabinets were on the ground they were stripped. It all sounds so simple, but I can assure you that it was VERY HARD work! I came home exhausted.

BLMR 2606 was retired because of reoccurring engine problems and WATX 6 was retired because traction motor #3 caught fire and burned the equipment rack in the rear of the unit.

When EMD's Dick Dillworth designed the GP7 in 1949, the statement that "the unit was intended to be so ugly that no self respecting railroad would assigned one to a passenger train". Well, we all know how that one turned out; the original GP7/GP9 was really a good looking locomotive and found itself used for all kinds of service, including passenger. IMHO the Santa Fe was very successful in creating an ugly unit with the CF7. This is not to detract from the success of their conversion program which EMD said could not be done. The AT&SF got 20 years of good service out of their CF7s and the resale market has gotten another 15+ years out of them.

I don't mind admitting that I did get a bit of perverse pleasure out of helping make 2 CF7s go away!