Diaphrams on B&O F Units

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the research. Much appreciated. I'll definitely add them.

[Anonymous]

I paged through my copy of "Blue Diesels and Black Diamonds" to see what might show up in that soft-cover B&O photo book. On page 46 are 3 photos, dated only "sometime before retirement in 1964 of a couple of the units there shown" (interpreting the captions) of a mixture of Fs and Geeps. Under magnification, I can make out a diaphragm on an F7B coupled to a Geep in the lower right-hand photo. Can't find any other evidence on the question.

--John

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info. But my question was based on the fact that I've seen lots of photos, just none of the rear of a B&O unit, so hence, my question. I kind of figure that the diapharms became obsolete at some point, when, I would never know.

I need to find one of those old timers that worked on the B&O to answer this question.

Anybody out there?????

[Sperandeo]

Hello "dgoodlander,"

EMD generally built all F units with diaphragms, but many railroads eventually removed them. This saved on maintenance, and after road switchers became the dominant form of locomotive the enclosed connections between carbody units didn't seem so important. Exactly when this happened varied from railroad to railroad, so if you're modeling a specific time you can look for dated photos of B&O F units and decide what to do.

Good luck,

Andy

[Anonymous]

I asked this question on another forum and didn't get a response so I'll try you prototype guys.

Did the B&O use diaphrams between their F units? I've seen a lot of photos of the front of F units, but never the back, or between an A and B. I have several AB sets and I was wondering if I should install diaphram sets to match the original