10/01/2026
Good day, y'all! This here is Gideon Menken, once again coming to your screens to educate y'all on a rather unique form of motive power from the upper Big Country.
Now, I found these photographs reproduced here for you in a book called "The Quanah Route," covering the Quanah, Acme & Pacific. It and its predecessors were originally built as independent companies, although they were later bought up and reestablished as a Texan subsidiary of the St. Louis-San Francisco system. It was only recently, while reading said book, that I had discovered this road owned the unit pictured here, the -3.
Now, the -3 was a motor car, colloquially known as a "Doodlebug". These were designed to run one or two man crews in order to take over passenger services on both branch and shortline railroads to maximize profits. Passenger service on most railroads was never the money-making side of the railroading business. However, having the ability to only pay 1-2 men; typically only the motorman (engineer) and conductor, as opposed to the additional roles necessary for a steam locomotive as the main motive power were (in some areas,) greatly successful.
In my research of this unit, I discovered that it was originally produced jointly by General Electric, who supplied the gas-electric running gear along with other various electrical appurtenances, and the Wason Manufacturing Company, who produced the main car body and creature comforts. They turned this unit out of the factory in August of 1912 as a model CE70-B11 with a GM16-C1 prime mover.
It was originally numbered Frisco #2113 and assigned to the New Iberia & Northern. It is unclear when exactly it was sold and renumbered to QA&P A-3. However, a note on a roster I found says c6/12 - 1/13. It's rather likely that the later parts of these are month dates and not years, as it was built in August, not June. The author may be unclear on the nature of this fact.
It was during this time on the Quanah Route that it had its picture taken not just once, but twice! Those that were reproduced in the aforementioned book are done so here, as well. They were credited to the respective collections of C.C. Roberts and B.H Stone. The book states that it originally began service pre 1914 on the 10 mile section west of Paducah. Later, in the year 1914, it would provide daily passenger service between Quanah and Roaring Springs.
However, it would not always operate on the Quanah Route, and it returned back to the Frisco as their 2nd #2107 circa 1924, later being renumbered again to their 2nd #2110 in 1927. It finally met its fate in July of 1939, being dismantled and scrapped in Springfield, Missouri.
If anyone has additional photographs of the -3, or any Frisco's GE model CE70-B11's, I'd appreciate it if you shared them in the comments.
Sources:
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/quanah-acme-and-pacific-railway
The Quanah Route: A History of the Quanah, Acme & Pacific Railway by Don L. (Donovan) Hofsommer. ISBN-10: 1585440469
