Baldwin RP-210 (X-Train)

[kenneo]

What ever happened to these trains? Last I know of them is that they were on the PICKENS at Travelers Rest, NC.

[M636C]

Eric,

From page 68 of "New York Central and the Trains of the Future" (G.H.Doughty, TLC, 1997), "Both "Xplorer" and "Daniel Webster" were scrapped in the early 1970s", presumably at Traveler's Rest.

Peter

[kenneo]

Not that it matters much, but I hoped not. However, I am afraid you're correct. It's ironic, but the fact that Baldwin had to finance both the NYC and NH RP-210's and when they were turned back to Baldwin, there was not sufficient money at BLH to pay off the loans that Baldwin had made expecting to get back from the RR's the full price of the purchases.

[M636C]

Eric,

The Maybach engines won't have been a help either. You probably couldn't even sell them on to a dealer. The Australian Navy still has the last of these engines in service - they had roller bearings on the crankshaft, and each overhaul cost more than half a million US dollars. They run well and are very powerful for their weight, but they are not for people who count pennies.

Peter

[UPTRAIN]

You got a photo?

[kenneo]

At $500,000 an American railroad of those years could purchase, cash on hand, two SD45's. Engines, new, in those days were going for just under $1 per pound gross weight. Why in the world would anybody want to rebuild them at that cost? Shipping them back to Switzerland and selling them used would return some money.

[M636C]

Eric,

The repair cost was from about two years ago, and for a sixteen cylinder engine that was about as powerful as an SD45, and not the twelve cylinder rated at about 1000HP used in the RP-210.

The engines were made in southern Germany, in Friedrichshafen, just down the road from the Zeppelin factory. The German railways used similar engines, but it might not have been worth shipping them back, there were probably only four engines plus maybe one spare.

Peter

[kenneo]

It was more than 4 engines. NYC had 2 sets of X-Trains, and the NH had several more that were triple powered to run on overhead, 3rd rail or diesel. Most, if not all, were returned to Baldwin - reason unknown to me - and at least one was later sold to PICKENS for excursion service. I understand it went to Travelers Rest and never left. But it had to leave, somehow, cause it does not seem to be there anymore.

My Baaldwin Book was made in the mid 1980's, but doesn't speak a word about these units fate except the X-plorer being pictured DIS on an abandoned spur at Travelers Rest. I must presume that Baldwin dismantled the NH units or Baldwins receiver did.

Could they have been sold "export" and not cut up?

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

NYC had one Train-X (the Xplorer) which was single-ended. NH had a double-ended Train-X (the Daniel Webster) which had an RP-210H at each end.
The RP-210H had a torque-converter drive, the goal of which was to eliminate some of the complexities of conventional electric drive. On NH, this simplicity was undone by the need to fit the locomotives with small traction motors and third-rail shoes to operate into Grand Central Terminal.

[M636C]

I stand corrected - three units only (I mistakenly assumed the NYC train had two units, but the book showed me I was wrong). There was a really weird export of the former New Haven Talgo train cars (but not the FM P12-42s that hauled them) to a standard gauge mining short line in Spain. There they were hauled by a German B-B Diesel Hydraulic (sort of a big (for them) switcher). That line converted to metre gauge, and I assume the stock was all scrapped.

While Spain had plenty of Talgo trains, even trains convertible from broad to standard gauge, the New Haven trains were quite different from anything else in Spain.

But I don't believe any Train X cars were exported.

Peter

[kenneo]

Well, I guess that I will continue to wonder "ever more, quoth the Eric, ever more". (Sorry, Edger.)

[sigh]