Does anyone know of any industry or musuem that still has an operational GE 44 tonner? I've always liked the looks of that particular unit (and other similar center-cab switchers), but have never seen one operating.
We run a 45 tonner. Its lookes identical to a 44 tonner.
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Thanks for the reply. What is its pedigree? What scheme is it painted in?Thx again,Stack
Yuma Valley Railway, Yuma Az. has one. Built 3/1942 rebuilt in 1978 with Cummings truck engines. It if USMC 152408 from El Toro Marine base, Ca.
The LNAC has one that is used on occassion , and the old Ferdinand RWY went to a grain elevater in central Indiana .
I found this guy idling in Crivitz about a year ago. Not sure what road those letters stand for or the exact make but someone told me it was an older GE XXtonner.
Dan
Dan, I'd venture a guess that your Crivitz critter weighs a lot less than 44 tons!
A GE 45-tonner, for some reason, has the axles of each truck connected by rods (one traction motor per truck), while a true 44-tonner has more conventional trucks.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
I have seen this one in Burlington IA, but have not seen it on a work day.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1377360
Dangerously off topic:
Bob, now that Thanksgiving is significantly in the past, I can tell you how much I appreciate your avatar. Nice one.
The comic strip "Mythtickle" has the same letter after the symbol commonly appearing on a Mac computer...
CShaveRR [clip] A GE 45-tonner, for some reason, has the axles of each truck connected by rods (one traction motor per truck), while a true 44-tonner has more conventional trucks.
The Wanamaker Kempton & Southern Railroad - a tourist line in northeasterly Berks County, in mid-eastern Pennsylvania - has an operating 45-tonner, No. 7258. See:
http://www.jeff-z.com/wks/locoroster/7258/7258.html
I'd bet there are probably several dozen still running in the U.S. and Canada, on a variety of shortlines, tourist railroads, and in industrial plants, etc. There must be a resource someplace that lists them . . . If nothing else, get hold of the most recent edition of Kalmbach's Guide to Shortline Railroads (or similar title), and peruse the rosters of each road.
-Paul North.
The last I knew, Quaker Oats in downtown Cedar Rapids had a 44-ton centercab switcher operating in its facility. If it was still in use it may have been destroyed or severely damaged in the floods this past summer. In 1994 I snapped a photo of it (not digitized) - it was light yellow overall without any fancy markings.
The Boone & Scenic Valley operates a 45 ton center cab that looks like the linked WK&S image. It was the switcher for Iowa State University's heating plant when they received coal by rail.
Jeff
Arizona Grain has a 44 tonner at their Casa Grande, Arizona facility. They bought it from a museum. It is in plain sight from the road with only a chain-link fence in the way if you want to take pix.
I have never seen the thing move. Supposedly they re-engined it a few years ago.
John Timm
A grain loading facility in Blue Earth, Minnesota has a 44 tonner parked on a siding west of their elevator. It is letter for the elevator. I have never seen it being used, so I don't know if it is operational. Matt
Plenty of those rascals (diesel mice) still running on the loose in and around Denver (Plus a set of even rarer Davenports)....You have to be on your toes in Hudson, CO to avoid being run over by three that work within 1 mile of each other.
Lou. Chem. has 2 center cabs units working. One is a 45 tonner, not sure
about the second one. (it's either a 44 or another 45 tonner)
General Electric has and uses a 44 tonner at their Appliance Park yard.
(along with two EMD SW-?s)
Being Crazy,keeps you from going "INSANE" !! "The light at the end of the tunnel,has been turned off due to budget cuts" NOT AFRAID A Vet., and PROUD OF IT!!
Although I don't quite know where you are in Wisconsin, there are a number of smallcenter-cab industrial switchers in the general area.
The GE 45-ton center cab that used to be at Beloit, WI was recently sold to an individual that had it trucked up toward Jefferson Junction, WI and plans to use itthere.
If you are up around Green Bay you might try to find the rare Whitcomb 44 ton center cab that works for the Bay Lakes Cooperative. They keep it at OcontoFalls, WI.
A few GE 45-ton center cabs work around Superior, WI at the grain loading facilities.I remember seeing one of them while taking the harbor cruise out of Duluth, MN afew years ago.
Down here in Rockford, IL the scrap dealer, Joe Behr & Sons, uses their GE 65-toncenter cab on weekdays and it crosses a public street several times a day.
There is an original Pennsylvania RR GE 44-tonner that works the CHS Coopat Linwood (Buffalo), IA along the IC&E just south of the Quad Cities. It is painted dark blue and has been slightly modified, but it is still around.
Lance
One of the Lowville and Beaver River 44 tonners is still used occasionally by the Mohawk, Adirondack, and Northern, vice their big ALCO C425 at Carthage.
They were using it as a push platform for a while, until the passing track they were using got passed by the cars they are storing.
I think there is another 44 tonner (or a close relative) at Carthage, in use by an industry. It rarely emerges in public, however.
I'm sure many of us know why GE built the 44 Tonner, but for those who don't - care to venture a guess?
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
tree68 I'm sure many of us know why GE built the 44 Tonner, but for those who don't - care to venture a guess?
There was a rule passed in the US that firemen weren't required on locomotives weighing less than 90,000 lbs. or 45 tons. So railways promptly bought 44 tonners
AgentKid
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
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Minnesota Transportation Museum in St. Paul, MN has a 45 tonner from the Navy facility that used to make big guns in Fridley, MN: http://www.mtmuseum.org/jsr/roster/
The nice part of this loco is that it has two diesels with antifreeze so we can leave this out in the winter and still get it started to move things around during our off-season maintenance period. They ain't pretty, but very functional. I can move a couple hundred tons around safely. Much more than that and the little locomotive couldn't hold on to the weight on some of our 2% grades in the storage area.(Yes, I know the shop should be on the level, but blame it on James J. Hill, he bought this propery in 1882 and decided to build the St. Paul Shops there.)
The other nice thing about the 45 tonner is that it is short enough to fit on the 100 ft. turntable with a passenger car.
Alex
Thanks much for all of the replies guys. I would never have guessed that there are so many of these units still in existance and in operation.
Thanks to all.Stack
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