Hauling A Nation

[Acela026]

Thanks for all the guys who replied to "Powering the Future". It really helped. I got an A+!   

 Here is a link to my paper other paper on older power:  http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgg6zh9m_2dh2dhkcc

       Please let me know if you have any tips, comments, or if you have any problems viewing this page!

Thanks! Acela026

[Acela026]

Really? Nobody has any tips or comments?

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

Well, OK - I read over your paper. I gather that the purpose or goal was to highlight the evolution of diesel locomotives as exemplified by the 2nd generation of GP40 and GP7/9 models - so this is a nicely-done compact overview of motive power development. Congratulations on the grade - you earned it !

That said, here are a few editorial quibbles - mainly to prove that I really did read it: ;-)

- Introductory paragraph doesn't mention either of these models; the "Foreword" starts off with the modern locos, then mentions these - and throws in the SD45 for a seemingly random purpose ?

- "Many larger roads still have these golden oldies in their rosters too." Do you really mean to include the GP7/9's in that statement, or just the GP40's and SD45's ? And I'm not even too sure that the statement is valid for those . . .

- I suppose that almost any reader should know what GE is - but what about EMD ? Perhaps explain that once ?

- "when horsepower ratings averaged at 15-2000 HP" - the "15" part is confusing, at least to me - is that supposed to just "15", or "15,000" ? I would have written it as "1,500 - 2,000 HP".

- Should you explain the difference between 2-stroke and 4-stroke, or just assume that the reader knows what each of those terms mean ?

- "100,000 gross tons of freight in tow" - should probably be 10,000 tons - I don't know that a 100K-ton train has ever been operated. Don't feel too bad, though - our local paper made exactly the same mistake about 10 years ago in an article about grade crossing accidents.

- Dilworth said something to the effect that the GP's were made ugly so that they would get off the mainline and back to tracks where they could do really useful work.

- "Though the GP40 and the GP9 are older locomotives, . . . but these seniors of the rails will stay on Class 1 railroads for a few more years." Perhaps some GP40's are still on some Class I's - but I believe that the total number of GP9's on Class I's can be counted on the fingers of 1 hand . . .

Thanks for sharing.

- Paul North.

[j610]

 Under the GP40 heading you state that the bore increase brought the engine displacement to 645 cubic inches, what you forgot to mention that it is 645 cubic inches per cylinder for a total of 10,320 cubic inches. RON