An asst of questions

[rvos1979]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mookie

Of course!

What engine is painted two-tone blue with orange pinstripe? Is this TFM? Is that the Mexican part of KCS? It looked to have a Mexican flag painted on the side of the cab - but at our distance, it was hard to see much detail.

I saw a GP 15-1 - is this rare or just for me?

Do some hopper cars have longer "hoppers" than others?

Why?

Do all SD40s have 3 trucks? The ones we saw looked like a small box sitting on shoes that were too big for it. The body was shorter than the trucks and looked odd. So do any SD40's have two trucks?

Mookie

two tone blue.... Nationales de mexico, or NdeM, for short, the government's railroad before the privatization of their railroads.

I know UP has quite a few GP15-1s, they should all have UPY reporting marks by now, there's somewhere between 1-200 of these things, most in yard service. I don't know of any other railroad that has these.

do you mean length of car, or diferent hopper door configuration? not sure how to answer this one.

almost all SD40s (and SD38s, for that matter) were built on the same frame as the SD45, to cut costs; thus you have porches on both ends. Some railroads ordered radio control equipment, and the noses were lengthened to house the equipment; my employer (WSOR) is actually SHORTENING the noses on them to match the rest of our fleet. (don't ask me why, I don't know)

Randy Vos
WSOR Engineer

[tree68]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mookie

Of course!

Do all SD40s have 3 trucks? The ones we saw looked like a small box sitting on shoes that were too big for it. The body was shorter than the trucks and looked odd. So do any SD40's have two trucks?

Remember, if you don't answer them all, some will come back to "haunt" you!

Mookie

Last I knew, all SDs had two trucks, but 3 axles on each... by definition, all SDs have three axle ("C") trucks. GPs have two axle ("B") trucks. That's why GPs are often referred to as "BB's" (or in some notation BoBo) and SDs as "CC's" (or CoCo). Same rules apply to GEs, ALCOs, etc.

I don't remember the whole story of the SD40, but it does involve big shoes on a "little" chassis, essentially a GP40 with CC trucks, on an SD45 frame, or something like that. They were often referred to as "porches." Those that had Locotrol equipment installed in the nose (resulting in a longer than normal short hood) were referred to as "Snoots."

[Mookie]

Of course!

Coal cars - rotary dump ones. Some have "belts" of rivets going around the underside where the two underside containers are. Some have one belt and it looks like it is pulled a little tight - making a definite "waist" and others have 3 belts of rivets that are spaced along the whole bottom - am I making any sense here?

Why?

What engine is painted two-tone blue with orange pinstripe? Is this TFM? Is that the Mexican part of KCS? It looked to have a Mexican flag painted on the side of the cab - but at our distance, it was hard to see much detail.

I saw a GP 15-1 - is this rare or just for me?

Do some hopper cars have longer "hoppers" than others?

Why?

Do all SD40s have 3 trucks? The ones we saw looked like a small box sitting on shoes that were too big for it. The body was shorter than the trucks and looked odd. So do any SD40's have two trucks?

And finally - hold your applause please - if I ship sand or kitty litter in bulk in a bottom dump and it leaks all the way from Lincoln to California (to see Dan) and is about empty when it gets there, who pays for the loss? Me or the railroad?

Remember, if you don't answer them all, some will come back to "haunt" you!

Mookie