RS3 Dynamic Brake installation - need info

[LuthierTom]

Does anyone have pictures or drawings of the dynamic brake installation fitted to some RS3s (specifically the 8 Norfolk and Western purchased in 1955)? I've run across a few photos, but all of them are from ground level and don't show what the top of the short hood looks like. HELP!

[nfmisso]

Tom;

Another member of the N&WHS sent me one from above recently, e-mail me and I will send it to you.

The N&WHS convention this year is in Roanoke, VA; July 7-11 (yeah conflicts with NMRA....) Several members will be getting shots of the RS3 then.

[jrbernier]

Luthier,

The RS-3 dynamic brake equipment was placed in the short hood. If the unit had both a Steam Generator and Dynamic Brakes, the short hood would be raised to the height of the cab(Hammerhead configuration). The C&NW had some RSD4/5's with this configuration, IIRC...

Jim Bernier

[Anonymous]

I've seen Lehigh Valley hammerhead units too.

---jps

[jrbarney]

Do you make musical instruments when you're not model railroading ? You might want to see if you can latch on to this article cited in the Index of Magazines:
Know your diesel - Alco road switchers Railroad Modeler, July 1975, page 38 ( AD, ALCO, B&M, CNR, CPR, D&H, DIESEL, DRAWING, L&N, MEC, MKT, "MORAN, MILES", MP, N&W, NDEM, NYC, P&N, P&W, RI, RS3, RUT, SP&S, SR, VTR, WM, ENGINE, LOCOMOTIVE, PROTOTYPE, RRM )
It might have some useful information. You'll probably have to request a photocopy from the NMRA's Kalmbach Memorial Library.
Bob
NMRA Life 0543

[M636C]

For a quick reference, there is an excellent top view of a Utah Railway RSD (4 or 5) in the Spring 2004 Classic trains magazine. There is a rectangular stack almost flush with the hood on the right side near the front (assuming the short hood is the front). Presumably there were also inlet louvres near the base of the hood which might show in ground level photos.

I think the arrangement in the few "Hammerheads" used a horizontal dynamic brake layout, as later used over the engine in RS-11 and RSD-12 types, while the "normal" layout was vertical with a blower underneath the grids in a vertical chimney arrangement.

Peter