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Tunnel Motors
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<P>Hi Dave. The tunnel motors weren't designed / re-arranged to breathe in tunnels. Rather, they were designed to cool down faster between tunnels. The common mis-understanding is that the lower air vents was to take in air down low in the tunnels where it was supposedly cooler. An EMD design and sales engineer who had worked on designing the tunnel motors set the record straight in an issue of Trains mag backabout 4 years ago. He mentioned that tunnels are such a small cavity, that all the air in a tunnel gets hot fast when a hard working loco passes through it. The cooling system was designed to cool the engines down faster after they get out of the tunnel and before they go into the next tunnel on mountain grades with lots of tunnels (think Donner). This option was priced at a premium, thus the RR's had to really determine whether or not their operaing conditions warranted / offset the higher cost of such locos. Only the SP and Rio Grande thought it a worthwhile investment for their conditions, and ponied up the cash to buy them new. Like what the other posters said, the newer or later models have better / more efficient cooling systems from the advancements in technology negating the need for premium priced specialized tunnel locos. Hope this helps.</P> <P> </P> <P>Greg</P>
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