Hello, I have a question about the use of the above mentioned locomotives.
1. A C-liner A unit(Milwaukee), was it used for passenger service or freight service or both? And what was the maximum/average of freight cars(if it was used for freight) that a A unit of C-liner could be pulling?
1a. Did Milwaukee got B-units for the C-liner?
1b. If no B units for the C-liner was it possible to put an other B unit behind a A unit C-liner?
2. A SD 9(Milwaukee), was it only for freight or was it also used for passenger service? And what was the maximum/average of freight cars(if it was used for freight) that it could be pulling?
3. A SD 40-2(Milwaukee), was it only for freight or was it also used for passenger service? And what was the maximum/average of freight cars(if it was used for freight) that it could be pulling?
4. Is it possible the put a SD9 and a SD40-2 together for pulling a freight train of about 52 cars?
5. A C-liner A unit could it be teamed up with an other unit than an other C-liner A unit? ex.: C-liner/SD9 or C-liner/SD40-2 for freight service
1 - A FM C-Liner could be ordered as either a freight or passenger engine. The Milwaukee Road C-Liners were ordered as 1600 hp freight units. Pulling power is not measured in number of freight cars. Total weight of the train, and the 'ruling grade' of the line operated on will determine how many tons of train an engine can pull. The pulling power would be comparable to any other 1500-1600 hp road freight engine of the time.
1a - The Milwaukee ordered them in 'ABA' sets, so 'yes' they did have 'B' units.
1b - The Milwaukee Road FM's had a standard 27 point MU and other diesels could run in MU with them.
2 - The Milwaukee ordered their SD9's a branchline freight engines.
3 - SD40-2 - a 3000 hp mainline freight engine of the 1070's It is a freight engine. Again, how much does the freight cars weigh, and what grade are you going to try to climb, and what speed do you expect the train to achieve?
4 - Sure, but again you need to consider how much that 52 car train weighs, what the ruling grade is and what speed to expect to run the train at. 52 empty 40' box cars weigh about 1200 tons. 52 loaded grain hoppers weigh about 6700 tons - Big difference!
5 - The C-liners could be MU'ed with other road engines. Remember, they were basically retired by the time the SD40-2 engines were built(mid 70's). Also, the SD7/9's were ordered for branchline service and spent most of their lives on either seconday lines or as local engines on the main line. The Milwaukee Road SD7/9's rode on special 'lightweight' frames to keep the axle loading to under 50,000 lbs(a normal engine has about 62,000-65,000 lb axle loading). This light weight was so that they could navigate light rail/bridges on the seconday lines they operated on.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
Jim, thank you very much for the answers!