BackshopI never saw a centercab and regret it.
I saw one centercab (on Altoona's deadline) and have regretted it or the rest of my life, there are somethings you just can't unsee
If we're talking unusual looking repowers, let's not forget Rock Island's Alco FA's that had been "EMD-ized" with EMD 567's in the 1950's at La Grange.
While that in itself wasn't unusual or particularly noteworthy, 13 of those repowers then later on got trucks from retired EMD FT's in the mid 1960's. They were retiring the FT's and wanted the FA trucks and motors for 13 new GE's, but didn't want to retire the repowered FA's that had been rebuilt just a few years earlier.
So the solution was to reshoe the FA's with the FT's Blomberg trucks and send the FA's trucks to Erie to go under the Rock's 2nd order of U25B's, resulting in a very unusual looking Alco.
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/789310/
It's difficult to tell for due to shadows in the linked photo, but some including this unit were further mongrelized by removing the distinctive headlight casing grille.
I never saw a centercab and regret it.
And how did I forget this:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1538081
My favorite--URR Buffalo.
URR 614 (rrpicturearchives.net)
As is fairly well known, there was a re-powering boomlet in the mid to late 1950's duirng which several roads attempted to reduce costs by dropping EMD engines into primarily Baldwin and Alco locomotives. The appearances of these re-powerings could be interesting, to put it mildly. EMD hoods on Baldwin and Alco roadswitchers were rather common.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=491169
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2198092
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=5663703
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=5653546
And an SW1500 repowered for natural gas
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=5283966
Rock Island had a DL-109 rebuilt in a different fashion, same cab but all EMD under the hood. The roof got an elongated hump to accomodate the EMD cooling systems.
https://www.railpictures.net/photo/402547/
621 was nicknamed 'Christine', in reference to the first person to become widely known for transititioning.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
Folks, I give you MILW 14A and 14B
Ok, you say, they're EMD E units, big deal
Except they are not. Look closer. Now do you see it? They were delivered from Alco as slant nose DL-107's in late 1941.
By 1953 they had over 3 million miles on the clock and MILW sent the engines and electrical gear back to Alco to be rebuilt. In the meantime MILW's shop forces refurbished the frame and running gear and grafted E8 cabs bought from EMD onto reurbished bodies. They ran into the early Sixties in that configuration on secondary trains. Why did MILW junk the slant nose configuration? I don't know. It might be just cosmetic to blend in with their EMD fleet. Can any MILW fans out there let us know? And why isn't 14B a B unit? Well ATSF and Southern purchased the only three DL-108's. But the real reason was that 14A and 14B were purchased as a locomotive to be MU'd and run back to back. In the early days of dieselization it was a worry that the Brotherhoods might insist that each unit was a different locomotive and there should be a crew on each. By numbering them 14A and 14B, the railroad could argue they were part of the same loco. This also applied to MILW's only EMD E6's, 15A and 15B, which alternated with 14A and 14B on assignments. Any modelers out there who want to try bashing an E8 cab onto a DL-109 body to get a close approximation? As for that boast that there was nothing faster on rails, they were geared for 120mph.
By 1953 they had over 3 million miles on the clock and MILW sent the engines and electrical gear back to Alco to be rebuilt. In the meantime MILW's shop forces refurbished the frame and running gear and grafted E8 cabs bought from EMD onto reurbished bodies. They ran into the early Sixties in that configuration on secondary trains.
Why did MILW junk the slant nose configuration? I don't know. It might be just cosmetic to blend in with their EMD fleet. Can any MILW fans out there let us know?
And why isn't 14B a B unit? Well ATSF and Southern purchased the only three DL-108's. But the real reason was that 14A and 14B were purchased as a locomotive to be MU'd and run back to back. In the early days of dieselization it was a worry that the Brotherhoods might insist that each unit was a different locomotive and there should be a crew on each. By numbering them 14A and 14B, the railroad could argue they were part of the same loco.
This also applied to MILW's only EMD E6's, 15A and 15B, which alternated with 14A and 14B on assignments.
Any modelers out there who want to try bashing an E8 cab onto a DL-109 body to get a close approximation?
As for that boast that there was nothing faster on rails, they were geared for 120mph.
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