Some boxcab type electric locomotives have round vertical posts or pillars on the front and rear "porches". What are they? Sand tanks? Protective posts for the crew, like the posts in front of post offices?
Thank You.
NDG Enzoamps Some boxcab type electric locomotives have round vertical posts or pillars on the front and rear "porches". What are they? Yes, the pillars on the porches are for sand.
Enzoamps Some boxcab type electric locomotives have round vertical posts or pillars on the front and rear "porches". What are they?
Some boxcab type electric locomotives have round vertical posts or pillars on the front and rear "porches". What are they?
Yes, the pillars on the porches are for sand.
With respect, those are AWFULLY heavy tanks, with very substantial bolted access ports at the bottom, to be sandboxes on a NYC T2b. I think they might be oil switches for the adjacent third-rail pickups; you will note in other pictures of T-motors that they are located all the way at the inside end of the 'monkey deck' platform, which is NOT where they'd be if containing traction sand.
Bet the NYCSHS, or Sam Berliner III, would know this!
NDGThere is a photo of Central Babyface Baldwins shoving a hump somewhere as they were less that satisfactory out on the Main
Not sure there wasn't some of that Schenectady bias in there, but NYC had very grim results with Baldwins as road power (perhaps Sharks included). Worst of them all had to be the Gravel Gerties, which had a large range of answers to questions nobody asked in their 'design' in addition to the usual Baldwin steam-locomotive construction detailing. I remember a story about a road crew in the twilight of one of the babyface cabs who were fishing off a bridge of some sort, noting the amount of oil and perhaps other fluids steadily drip-drip-dripping down into the water. (Probably getting there by way of the oil bath thoughtfully provided for the electrical cabling under the deck...)
Might have been interesting to see how a full 6000hp Essl unit might have fared in long-term service, eight high-speed engines each driving just one axle. With '30s-style slip control. Like an early version of the joke about the American space shuttle: a million moving parts all supplied by the lowest bidder...
The last of the S-motors held on much longer than any P-motor, if I remember correctly, even that last P with lightning stripes they had out in the weeds at Harmon for so long. I saw one active switching GCT in the early 1980s, as unbelievable in a way as seeing William Wilgus' ghost.
Funny, but I don't remember serious fan noise from the Ps when they were the 'standard' PC passenger power between GCT and Harmon in the very early 1970s. It was fun to listen to the various mechanical noises produced by the 567s of the E units and FL9s as they were repeatedly notched up and wheezingly idled to gain momentum ... I was just a kid then, and thought that was how ALL passenger power sounded accelerating a train; what else did I have to compare it with that was better than the Water Level Route?
Were any of those NYC S-motors preserved? Truly a remarkable machine, especially when you consider they entered service when Teddy Roosevelt was in the White House and then lasted right up to the Spage Age!
The S-motors lasted as long as they did for a variety of reasons. They were used in low-speed light-duty service as passenger switchers and their gearless motors eliminated a lot of parts that would wear out. They made a virtue out of being low-tech.
NDGhttp://www.railarchive.net/nyccollection/images/ple9090_wk.jpg It was later I REALIZED this is an NYC locomotive, too!
It was later I REALIZED this is an NYC locomotive, too!
If I'm not mistaken, there's a clip of this locomotive under steam, going across the Castleton Cutoff high bridge, in that recent YouTube clip of "NYC Steam 1928-1929" (or whatever it's called; the thumbnail shows a steam locomotive traversing the approach to the trusses). It's not very long, but if you know what you're looking at, impressive.
Overmod NDG Enzoamps Some boxcab type electric locomotives have round vertical posts or pillars on the front and rear "porches". What are they? Yes, the pillars on the porches are for sand. With respect, those are AWFULLY heavy tanks, with very substantial bolted access ports at the bottom, to be sandboxes on a NYC T2b. I think they might be oil switches for the adjacent third-rail pickups; you will note in other pictures of T-motors that they are located all the way at the inside end of the 'monkey deck' platform, which is NOT where they'd be if containing traction sand. Bet the NYCSHS, or Sam Berliner III, would know this!
I go with sandboxes. I don't know why you would need oil switches for 600 VDC. I assume each motor is protected with ribbon fuses and I see the canopy fuse hanging there.
Randy
Those cylindrical sand boxes were also used on the Illinois Terminal system on the Class C freight motors. Class D's were higher horsepower Class Cs but the front and rear 'decks' were enclosed to provide improved ventillation to the motors on each of the 4 axles front and rear giving the locomotive a B-B+B-B arrangement in 'diesel' terms.
Randy StahlI don't know why you would need oil switches for 600 VDC. I assume each motor is protected with ribbon fuses and I see the canopy fuse hanging there.
Upon further reflection I would suggest part of the MU gear.
I have no objection to it being sandboxes, but the heavy construction and location changing over their service life don't indicate that. So I would want to see close detail with valves and sanding lines, or a clear diagram or detail drawing, before agreeing.
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