Cow and Calf Combination

[Anonymous]

Did Alco ever make a cow and calf combination like EMD did? Also was the Cow/Calf/Cow combination used often by any of the railroads that used them?
Larry

[joseph2]

Oliver Iron Mining had two sets of cow/calf S-6 switchers.The Frisco made a calf out of a wrecked S-2 in1961.

[Mookie]

How is the calf different from the cow - except for no cab? And do they only use these in yards or both yards and over the road?

[CShaveRR]

Basically, that's the difference--no cab. The end that would have had a cab has some gauges thet should be visible from the cab of the cow.

They generally weren't built for speed, so transfer service was the best possible use for them. However C&O had some TR4s that they would use on mine runs, which had to use main lines for part of the trip, anyway.

[Mookie]

Thank you for the information.

[SSW9389]

Union Pacific used TR5s for a time as helpers on Cajon Pass.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

BRC used TR2s and TR4s in pulldown and transfer duty and were probably the last cow-calf sets in daily service. They also were semi-permanently coupled with solid drawbars through their entire service on BRC. In later years, they were as much of a BRC trademark as the C424s.

[Anonymous]

While we think of switchers when we talk about cow-calf combinations, remember that a cabless "B" unit was in effect a calf, though not perminitly coupled, though some of the early F units were. So an early a-b-a combo with drawbars was a C/c/C combo.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

IHB removed the cabs from at least five of their switchers, converting them to calves and numbering them in the BU series. I have seen lash-ups that included a calf sandwiched between two regular switchers. C&O had two TR3 sets which were a herd (cow and two calves).

[CShaveRR]

The IHB units had more than cabs removed...they removed the engines and made them slugs. IIRC, at least one other had nearly everything removed and was made into a fuel tender.

If you're a CSS fan, you might be familiar with those C&O "herds"--a few of their components came to the South Shore for a while, before the ex-C&O GP7s.

[Mookie]

ok - keep it simple - I do better with babies than locomotives, but am I right - a calf is an auxillary power unit and a slug is? and a fuel tender is?

[edblysard]

Hi Jenny,
A calf is a cabless booster unit. EMD's NW2 calf was the TR2, the SW7 version was a TR4, and the SW9 was a TR5, (tr standing for transfer)identical to therir counterparts with the exception of not having cabs, they were a complere locomotive, diesel engine, traction motors, fuel tanks, the works. They had a small control stand in the side to allow them to be moved by themselves. In essence, two complete locomotives controled from the lead (cow) unit.
Slugs are an engineless locomotive frame with only traction motors and a ballast weight,(weight added to increase traction) unable to operate under their own power, they are controlled by mu cables(electrical connections) from the lead unit, and draw all their electrical power from the lead units alternator. They are often home made, cut down from retired locomotives. Slugs are used when traction, not horsepower is needed, as in hump yard service. Slave units are complete locomotives, remotely controled from the lead locomotive. They are often refered to as distributed power, you see them in the middle of coal trains, and are used as pushers on the rear of heavy, long trains, they are controlled via radio. Slaves are often used as road units now, they have complete control stands, along with the capibality of being remotely controlled. The cow and calf reference is applied to switchers only, road units are refered to as A and B units, the B unit being a cabless version of the other.(B standing for booster) And a fuel tender is just that, a rolling fuel tank, some railroads gutted old switchers and locomotives, added huge fuel tanks and tried to use them to increase the distance a locomotive could go between fuelings. BN even converted a SD40 to run on LPG and natural gas, and added a tank car, semi permanent coupled to it as a fuel tender.
Hope this helps,
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

IHB has both calves and slugs, calves are numbered in the BU series and slugs are numbered in the PB series and 477-479. I am familiar with the South Shore herds which were leased from C&O and were returned when the GP7s arrived.

[CShaveRR]

You're right, of course...I must have been thinking of CNW, which had slugs with the BU prefix. Sorry!

[CShaveRR]

A slight elaboration (or correction) on Ed's thorough response. He's right in saying that TR2s (and TR3s) corresponded to the NW2s, TR4s to SW7s, and TR5s to SW9s. But the cab units, or cows for this thread, did have some differences from their single-unit counterparts--most noticeable of which were the missing lower windows on the rear of the cab. It apparently was enough to get them a new model designtion, TR#A.

One thing you'd never see on an NW2: CGW's TR2s had dual controls (the engineer could work from either side of the cab).

[Mookie]

Ed: Ah! That about covers it. Thank you so much - The only one I have ever seen here and see now is the slave - imagine that in the land of Lincoln (NE that is) :)

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Two Alco cow-calf sets were used by Oliver Iron Mining (later Minntac) in mine service and may be the only factory cow-calf sets from Alco. OIM also had the only factory Baldwin cow-calf sets and a sizable fleet of EMD cow-calf sets.