An asst of questions

[ericsp]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dwil89

As mentioned above, the Tunnelmotors will fill out the frames...again, for ones unfamiliar with a Tunnel motor, EMD produced them, with the radiators mounted low on the carbody for the Southern Pacific notably, as conventionally designed diesels had a tendancy to overheat in long tunnels, asmultiple engine consists would heat the air in the tunnel, and the rear engines tended to overheat because the hot air was trapped at the top of the bore...the Tunnel motor moved the radiator intakes to the bottom of the carbody, where the cooler air would be located, as heat rises

The short nose SD40T-2s do have a "porch" up front. The SD45T-2s and long nose SD40T-2s "fill out" the frame. By the way, the tunnel motor frame is longer than the regular SD40-2/SD45-2 frame. The SP and SSW tunnel motors have 4300 & 4400 gallon fuel tanks.

Going back to cat litter, don't forget about shipping bags in boxcars (I don't know if they do that anymore). According to The History of the Sunset Railway by John F. Bergman (published by the Kern County Historical Society, ISBN 0-943500-14-1) Johnny Cat (http://www.oildri.com/) has a facility near Taft, CA. that used to ship bags of cat litter in boxes. I do not remember when it said they stopped. However, the line from Levee to Taft was abandoned I think in the early 1990s.

[dwil89]

QUOTE: Originally posted by CShaveRR

Switching to the motive-power side...

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I don't know why you're seeing some SD40-2s with longer porches than others (most of the old SD40s are probably gone now), but trust me--they all have long porches! And the "oversized sneakers" analogy has been drawn somehere before--in Trains if I'm not mistaken! I know you couldn't have seen it, but it's a good one!

You may be seeing SD40 rebuilds. Conrail rebuilt 40 SD40's from KCS and Penn Central and other heritages to SD40-2 internal specs. They were numbered in the 6900 series and got divided up between CSX and NS after the Conrail split. NS' are numbered 3425-3447, behind the as-built ex-Conrail SD40-2's numbered 3329-3424. The SD40 rebuilds are now stenciled SD40-2 due to getting the electrical cabinet upgrades, but externally, they still look like SD40's with shorter porches and chicken wire radiator grills, although early production dash 2's had the chickenwire also. There could be other SD40's rebuilt to 40-2 specs running around elsewhere too. Dave Williams http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nsaltoonajohnstown