Early east end Diesels

[NW Mailing List]

Harry - 

I came along in 1959 and never heard any comparable statement.  When I was ARFE at Portsmouth 1962-1965 I know of one road failure - just one (a fuse clip in the battery charging circuit on a GP9 broke, resulting in the batteries going dead).  The GP30s and 35s were new when I got there, as were the SD35s.  Even the turbo troubles on the 30s and 35s hadn't started to occur (failing to come back on the gear train when throttle was reduced).  They had had troubles with RS11s' turbos before, but because of their failure to replace or repair them on recommended cycles.  I saw a failure on a RS11 while I was at Wilcoe; the shutters froze open (which meant the cooling fan kept running) when the temperature was below zero, and we shut down the engine and drained it before the radiator coils froze up with the engine running; the engine water temperature, as I recall, was in the 60s.

They might have had such troubles prior between 1955 and 1959, but nobody seemed to harp on it any.  Carl Lewey described a failure on a GP9 on a Millstone Turn before he and I both got to Portsmouth; it was coming down the creek toward Naugatuck and the keeper that holds the valve stem came out; the valve went down into the cylinder with the resulting interesting results, piston disintegrating, rods swinging and destroying the bottom of that power assembly and the one opposite.  Lewey said, laughingly, that EMD's guarantee was as good as its word; they replaced the keeper.

See if Louis Newton or Hank Kinzel have any more data.

BTW - I was impressed with the Wabash and NKP diesel maintenance; I only remember one failure on an F7 the year I was at Decatur, and don't remember any while I was doing my penance at Montpelier. (Thanks, Dickie!)

BTW again - the biggest train I ever handled out of Williamson was 254 loads, 24785 tons - one GP18, 2 RS11s and 1 RS 36.  Hit 20 MPH for the first time passing Kermit, 19 miles out.  Had several 240+ trains with two GP30s or 35's or one of each.  They'd never make transition at 27 mph; they'd pull 900 amps from Williamson to Portsmouth, with only the respite of the throttle reduction over the DT&I crossing at Ironton to keep from flashing one of them over.

Rode a test train to Columbus with 3 SD35s and 267 loads.  Went over Delano Hill at Kingston 11 mph and never slipped.  Usual train was 3 "big" GPs and 210 loads.

The record of frustration had to have been the Pennsy, which we found out about when we got the Sandusky Line.  They were still running their Toledo-Columbus trains from Columbus to Carrothers; guys told me that they'd leave Toledo with five, and be lucky to have two running when they got to Carrothers.

EdKing

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: NW Mailing List 
  To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org 
  Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 2007 10:21 AM
  Subject: Re: Early east end Diesels


  About 1961, Crewe elected to route a drag to Sewells
  Point, instead of Lamberts Point.  It passed Tidewater
  with five 4-axle units, both EMD's and Alco's.  It was
  toting 256 X 0.  Tonnage-wise, it probably didn't compare
  to today's trains because it was made up of 50, 70, 85-ton
  hoppers, but it certainly tied up Granby Street for a
  while.

  EdK - a Motive Power man here in Roanoke made a 
  statement about early dieselization - "We'd assign
  five units and hope that three would be on line at
  the next terminal".  Care to clarify  that statement, say
  in 15 words or less ?
                                                    Harry Bundy





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