During the NYNH&H days, up to the Penn Central merger, the "Jets" worked with other passenger electrics, and then with EMD FL-9's, hauling trains from New Haven and Dambury (later East Norwalk) to Grand Central Terminal and Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan. Shortly after Penn Central took over, schedules were slashed, and GG-1's began running through to New Haven, with all Boston trains running to PennStation except (for a while) the two Turboliners. When last seen the EP-5's were hauling demotered older New Haven commuter cars with pantographs up for lights and heat, in Grand Central - Stamford local service. GG-1's kept hauling the through trains almost until Metro North went to a 60 Hz power supply and Amtrak had enough AEM-7's to handle them. I know the EP-5's were never modified for 60Hz power. (The could have been.) Questions:
Did any ever operate west of Penn Station in passenger service?
When were they last used and how?
When and where were they scrapped?
I don't think that the EP5's ever worked west of Penn Station on a regular basis. They would have been oddballs among the GG1's and maintenance would have suffered even more than it already had under New Haven management.
LIRR had considered purchasing two of the EP5's at the time of their retirement. They would have been used as emergency power for hauling disabled MU's from the East River tunnels. The proposal fell through when LIRR was outbid by a scrap dealer.
Hi Dave -
In Conrail days at least a couple were in Harrisburg; one with fire damage (going solely by my memory, I want to say this was the 4977). Unlike the E33s, I never saw the EP-5s operating on the Philadelphia-Harrisburg electrification.
4 were scrapped shortly after the PC took over the NYNH&H. After 4971 had a rush-hour fire in Grand Central in 1973, the other 6 were banished to Harrisburg. 4973 and 4977 were refurbished for frieght, but didn't last long, being oddballs without MU. The 6 went to Naporano Iron and Steel, in or near Newark, to be scrapped during May 1979.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=348674
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locoList.aspx?mid=1027
An EP-5 was run NY-Washington and return, on a test, on at least one occasion, perhaps two. They were not successful in that service because they had been designed for the 72-mile NY-New Haven run, and their ignitron rectifier tubes weren't up to the sustained high speed runs of the 227-mile NY-Wash run.
For that matter they were not terribly successful on the New Haven either --- they were extremely maintenance-intensive (particularly prone to electrical fires) and difficult to keep in service.
Tom Curtin wrote: An EP-5 was run NY-Washington and return, on a test, on at least one occasion, perhaps two. They were not successful in that service because they had been designed for the 72-mile NY-New Haven run, and their ignitron rectifier tubes weren't up to the sustained high speed runs of the 227-mile NY-Wash run. For that matter they were not terribly successful on the New Haven either --- they were extremely maintenance-intensive (particularly prone to electrical fires) and difficult to keep in service.
The EP-5's wore only McGinnis New Haven atire and Penn Central black. And I believe some never made it to PC black but continued in NH decore until retired. One was painted yellow and white and black instead of orange-red and white and black, but that was only to give Mrs. Mcginnis a choice at GE, and it was changed to the normal scheme before delivery. The EP-5's were the first NYNH&H rolling stock to get the McGinnis color scheme. Whcih no streamlined electrics, EF-3's and EP-4's, ever wore, only a few earlier box-cabs.
The PRR had a few Westinghous and GE test demonstreation Post-WWII electrics that vaguely reembled EP-5's in body design. This was about 1949-1950.
Ok, the two black EP5s were PC 4973 and 4977, neither of which did very well in local freight service.
I just (and I mean just) missed them on the commuter runs pulling dead "washboards". But the states of New York and Connecticut got the "better" washboards up and running again, and with Amtrak cutting the number of trains on the NYP-Boston run, the EP5s weren't needed. When the "washboards" started to die again there were enough FL9s to allow three FLs on the trains that a single EP5 could handle.
Dave:
I dug out an old copy of "Classic Power No. 9: EP-5 Jets" by Joe Cunningham (NJ International, 1991). It looks like the EP-5s had a pretty grim life. Cunningham has the following timeline:
1967: 370, 372, & 378 Burned beyond repair.
1970: EP-5s (including burned-out units) renumbered by PC to 4970 thru 4979. 4971 and 4973 thru 4977 re-painted in PC black.
1972: 4974, 4976 stored and 4970, 4972, 4978 & 4979 scrapped in Guilford, CT.
1973: 4975 stored. 4971 catches fire in Park Avenue tunnel and MTA forbids use of EP-5's on subsidized trains. 4971, 4973, 4977 stored.
1974: 4973 & 4977 converted for freight use (3rd rail pickups and one pantograph removed) based at Morrisville, PA with weekday runs to Waverly and Kearney freight yards.
1976: 4973 retired.
1977: 4977 retired.
1979: 4971, 4973, 4977 scrapped in Newark, NJ.
Mike
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