Wabash 107

[SSW9389]

Wabash 107 was an EMD SW1. It has two builder's dates, actually a builder's date and a rebuild date. And the rebuild date has been accepted as the build date for decades, something's obviously wrong. 

The original Wabash 107 was built in November 1941 on EMD order E403 as serial #1388. It had a 6-567V block number, serial number, order number, and wiring diagram associated with SW1s built in late 1941. The 107 in the 1959 edition of EMD Product Data has a November 1945 build date with the aforementioned block number, serial number, order number and wiring diagram that date to 1941. An SW1 built in 1945 should have had a 6-567A engine, instead of a 6-567 engine. That's what caught this researcher's attention. 

So what happened to the original 107 that caused it to be rebuilt four years later? That's the unknown at this time. Wabash 107 was the only SW1 built in November 1945 and the last SW1 built before the strike hit EMD on November 22nd. 

Ed in Kentucky  

[BaltACD]

I was working a Locust Point Yard in Baltimore for the B&O in the mid 1970's.  A crew was assigned to weigh a high-wide-heavy transformer loaded on a depressed center flat car.  Crew tied on hand brakes on the car, however, when they cut the engine away to leave the car standing on the scale, it started rolling away toward the Andre Street roadcrossing, Yard Office and ultimately down to the Fruit Pier where locomotives that weren't being used were parked adjacent to the crew room.  The heavy load struck engine 8414 - a SW1 and SNAPPED the frame at the point where the 'front porch' became the frame under the prime mover and the rest of the car body.  As I recall the frame a the point it snapped was 12 to 14 inche thick (virtical dimension) with a 100% clean break, the frame beind solid cast steel.  Outside of having the front porch as well as the coupler and draft gear missing, the engine was operable.  I don't know what the ultimate outcome was for the locomotive - I suspect it was scrapped.

 

The cause of the double build on WAB 107, I have no idea.

[BaltACD]

I was working a Locust Point Yard in Baltimore for the B&O in the mid 1970's.  A crew was assigned to weigh a high-wide-heavy transformer loaded on a depressed center flat car.  Crew tied on hand brakes on the car, however, when they cut the engine away to leave the car standing on the scale, it started rolling away toward the Andre Street roadcrossing, Yard Office and ultimately down to the Fruit Pier where locomotives that weren't being used were parked adjacent to the crew room.  The heavy load struck engine 8414 - a SW1 and SNAPPED the frame at the point where the 'front porch' became the frame under the prime mover and the rest of the car body.  As I recall the frame a the point it snapped was 12 to 14 inche thick (virtical dimension) with a 100% clean break, the frame beind solid cast steel.  Outside of having the front porch as well as the coupler and draft gear missing, the engine was operable.  I don't know what the ultimate outcome was for the locomotive - I suspect it was scrapped.

 

The cause of the double build on WAB 107, I have no idea.

[Erik_Mag]

Are you sure 8414 wasn't an SC1?

SC1 - Six hundred hp, Cast frame

SW1 - Six hundred hp, Welded frame

I may be way off base with thinking that 8414 was an SC1, though an SW1 would also have a pretty beefy frame as well. Both significantly beefier than a Geep.

[SSW9389]

B&O SW1 #8414 was built by EMC as #214 in September 1940. The EMC serial trace is #1112. 

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Erik_Mag

Are you sure 8414 wasn't an SC1?

SC1 - Six hundred hp, Cast frame

SW1 - Six hundred hp, Welded frame

I may be way off base with thinking that 8414 was an SC1, though an SW1 would also have a pretty beefy frame as well. Both significantly beefier than a Geep.

 

The switchers with the 201-A engine were models SC, SW, NC, NW and NW1.  The SW1 has/had a 567 engine.  All 567-engined switchers had welded underframes.

[Erik_Mag]

CSSHEGEWISCH

 All 567-engined switchers had welded underframes.

I did write I may have been off-base...

Thanks for the correction.