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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by arbfbe To feed trailing diesels from a lead electric would require quite a substantial bus system. The spring loaded bars on the GN Y -1 class electrics come to mind. There are some problems with that between units account the high voltages in the areas where crew members are working. The MILW boxcabs did bus the power between units but those units were almost permanently coupled and the feeders were above the roof line. [/quote] As I percieve such power MU'ing, the combined electric and diesel loco lashup would act as each other's road slug depending on which power source is being utilized. Road slugs don't need such heavy duty bus bar connections, right? If I understand correctly, the bus bars were used to transmit "unconverted" 3600v DC current to the trailing units, while a road slug connection transmits "converted" current to the trailing unit(s). [quote]QUOTE: All the opportunities MILW management had to make their railroad work and they repeatedly chose the wrong course. [/quote] Can you be more specific? For posterity's sake, what would you have done differently regarding Milwaukee's decision nexus circa 1970 as to what to do with the electrification, save it, scrap it, modernize it, and/or expand it? My long held belief was that Milwaukee should have scrapped the catenary back in the 1950's when dieselization became commonplace, e.g. the inherent savings of standardization. That belief has been modified in recent months with the information provided on this forum regarding the operating cost savings of electrification and the seemingly permanent price increases in diesel fuel, to the point where I now think electrification of certain segments would have made sense if a bi-modal power solution could be had "on the fly", e.g. some sort of emulation of the FL9 concept. For the Milwaukee in the 1970's, that FL9 technology concept existed in conjunction with Milwaukee's own innovations in running diesels and electrics together. Perhaps Milwaukee should have kept the wires between Harlowtown and Butte, as well as Haugen and Avery, but also considered taking down the wires between Butte and Haugen since that was basically water level gradient. On the Cascade segment, keep the wires between Beverly and Kittitas for the Saddle Mountain crossing as well as between Hyak and Maple Valley for the Snoqualmie Pass grade.
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