With regards to that photo, it looks like that F-unit was heavily modded with rooftop gadgets.
Can you tell us what roof top hardware is on that photo?
A common type of roof top mod seems to be a "winterization hatch." Can anyone tell me what that does and how it works? My guess is it takes hot exhaust air from a cooling fan and recirculates it through some part of the locomotive you want to keep from freezing, but there may be a little more to it and that.
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
Alan Robinson The original F units (and E units for that matter) were almost all purchased by major railroads in the late forties and fifties. There were good reasons for this. The new road diesels were expensive and the majors were the ones with the money and cash flow to pay for them. Diesel technology developed pretty fast during those early years and by the time the F9 and E8 came along these units were quite efficient at moving freight and passengers in over the road operations. But they made horrible switchers due to the poor visibility, especially to the rear. Even an A-B-B-A lashup was a pain for switching operations but it did help avoid the hassle of turning the power at the end of a run. But once the road switcher design came into fashion the railroads had a locomotive that could do it all, freight, passenger and switching. It was not easy to convert an E or F unit into a road switcher because the body structure that shrouded the internal components provided structural support, unlike the heavy frame of a road switcher. Only the Santa Fe and a very few other roads tried it. So, as these units aged they weren't very useful to move down to branchline service because they made such problematic switchers. Similarly, selling the units to short lines or branch lines had limited appeal. By the time these lines could afford diesels (even used ones) they wanted road switchers or units like GE's 44 tonner rather than old F units from the major roads. Thus, trade-in programs became immensely popular. The GP7 was essentially the guts of an F7 in a roadswitcher car body as was the GP9 the guts of an F9 in a similar body. So it was no trouble for GM to take these units as trade-ins, overhaul the prime mover, electrical gear, trucks and traction motors and end up with essentially a new much more useful unit at a fraction of the cost of a conventional new unit. Will we ever see similar "covered wagon" designs regain popularity? Only in long haul passenger or freight service and then the cowl will probably be non structural as in the F40 unit and its derivatives, or the new units built for Amtrak. Making the cowl nonstructural simply makes maintenance so much easier that there are few reasons not to build units that way. Still, there is something about a brace of covered wagons in a snappy paint job that the newer units just can't match in appearance, especially when pulling a string of lightweight cars from the age of the streamliners. Such beautiful trains. The new Superliners pale in comparison.
The original F units (and E units for that matter) were almost all purchased by major railroads in the late forties and fifties. There were good reasons for this. The new road diesels were expensive and the majors were the ones with the money and cash flow to pay for them. Diesel technology developed pretty fast during those early years and by the time the F9 and E8 came along these units were quite efficient at moving freight and passengers in over the road operations. But they made horrible switchers due to the poor visibility, especially to the rear. Even an A-B-B-A lashup was a pain for switching operations but it did help avoid the hassle of turning the power at the end of a run. But once the road switcher design came into fashion the railroads had a locomotive that could do it all, freight, passenger and switching.
It was not easy to convert an E or F unit into a road switcher because the body structure that shrouded the internal components provided structural support, unlike the heavy frame of a road switcher. Only the Santa Fe and a very few other roads tried it. So, as these units aged they weren't very useful to move down to branchline service because they made such problematic switchers. Similarly, selling the units to short lines or branch lines had limited appeal. By the time these lines could afford diesels (even used ones) they wanted road switchers or units like GE's 44 tonner rather than old F units from the major roads.
Thus, trade-in programs became immensely popular. The GP7 was essentially the guts of an F7 in a roadswitcher car body as was the GP9 the guts of an F9 in a similar body. So it was no trouble for GM to take these units as trade-ins, overhaul the prime mover, electrical gear, trucks and traction motors and end up with essentially a new much more useful unit at a fraction of the cost of a conventional new unit.
Will we ever see similar "covered wagon" designs regain popularity? Only in long haul passenger or freight service and then the cowl will probably be non structural as in the F40 unit and its derivatives, or the new units built for Amtrak. Making the cowl nonstructural simply makes maintenance so much easier that there are few reasons not to build units that way.
Still, there is something about a brace of covered wagons in a snappy paint job that the newer units just can't match in appearance, especially when pulling a string of lightweight cars from the age of the streamliners. Such beautiful trains. The new Superliners pale in comparison.
Actually the newest passenger diesel designs use a Monocoque design instead of a cowled roadswitcher frame and the body is partially loadbearing which makes for a lighter unit. The newly designed GE Evolution series passenger locomotive will use this as do the MPI MPexpress units and the most recent diesels built for NJ transit and Metra...
"I Often Dream of Trains"-From the Album of the Same Name by Robyn Hitchcock
pajrrThe new Brookville locomotives on Metro-North are BL20GH, 2000 hp roadswitchers
YES the BL20GH's that's it! Thanks!
Looks like maby DNBK enhancements on the top of that F? maby a new cooling system?
The road to to success is always under construction. _____________________________________________________________________________ When the going gets tough, the tough use duct tape.
Paul MilenkovicA common type of roof top mod seems to be a "winterization hatch." Can anyone tell me what that does and how it works? My guess is it takes hot exhaust air from a cooling fan and recirculates it through some part of the locomotive you want to keep from freezing, but there may be a little more to it and that.
That's actually pretty close to the mark - the hatch includes a damper to direct the hot air outwards during the summer.
A good explanation took place in the 3 part series on E-units in last fall's Railfan & Railroad.
GDRMCo Sorry but how hard is correct spelling and punctuation? Don't want to take offence and sound like the grammar police but spelling and punctuation is easy, even the dim kids at my school got it. OT- Odd theres all that computer script in the post, anyone know how to remove it?
Sorry but how hard is correct spelling and punctuation? Don't want to take offence and sound like the grammar police but spelling and punctuation is easy, even the dim kids at my school got it.
OT- Odd theres all that computer script in the post, anyone know how to remove it?
Those who live in glass houses.....
Where have I put "where's" in that post, and I had used a comma once already in the sentence, didnt need one between police and but.
ML
zardoz Sorry but how hard is correct spelling and punctuation? Don't want to take offence and sound like the grammar police but spelling and punctuation is easy, even the dim kids at my school got it.
You spelled offense wrong. One who "takes offense" is the one being offended, not the other way around. The comma after "easy" should be a period.
Looking at another thread, it appears the last of the NH FL's has bit the dust. Are there any rebuilt cab units left on MBTA or MARC? They seem to be the last of the rebuilt units?
The MBTA retired the last of it's F rebuilds long ago, IIRC the units (F10's) were all gone by the mid to late 80's...
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