End of Service for VGN EL-2B Streamliners

[NW Mailing List]

Stewart:
 
You undoubtedly saw it and just didn't know you had.  For reasons that  I 
once knew but have forgotten (taxes, ICC regulations, AAR interchange rules,  
or some combination thereof) GE established the EEC as a wholly-owned 
subsidiary  for the purpose of interchanging the out-going locomotives and 
incoming  trade-ins (and anything else shipped in or out by rail) with the NYC and 
NKP  (and their successors, of course).  Also, EEC provided the maintenance 
of  the GE test track running east from the plant.  So, the tracks you saw  
north of the former NYC tracks, now CSX (visible from the Franklin Rd.  
overpass), and the tracks running parallel to Water St. ducking under both main 
 lines (to come up on the other side and interchange with former NKP, now 
NS) are  all EEC tracks.  The EEC engine-house is visible from Water St. just 
south  of the East Gate of the plant.
 
I've been gone from Erie for 15 years now, so some details may have changed 
 slightly.  I notice that MapQuest labels the test track and connecting  
tracks as "Conrail" even though they correctly identify former NYC as CSX and  
former NKP as NS.  They do show EEC trackage as well.  Search for  "2901 
East Lake Road, Erie PA" and zoom in to see if you can retrace your visit  in 
the Satellite view.
 
Dave Phelps
 
 
In a message dated 10/22/2012 8:25:08 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org writes:

Dave Phelps, Thank you for the very great history of the  Rectifiers.  I 
very much enjoyed their life on the New Haven Railroad in  their years around 
New Haven, CT.  Those early training assignments with  GE must have been 
enjoyable-particularly being connected with the Erie Works.  I went to Erie, Pa 
 8  years ago and drove all around the plant  looking to see what ever was 
available.  I looked in the wrong place  however and couldn't find the East 
Erie Commercial R.R.
Stewart F.

----- Original Message ----- 
From:  _NW Mailing List_ (mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)  
To: _nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org_ (mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)  
Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2012 12:27  PM
Subject: Re: End of Service for VGN  EL-2B Streamliners


Stewart:
 
You're thinking of what Vgn called the EL-C.  The EL-2b's were the  
two-unit (back to back) "streamliners."  They had 25 Hz to DC  motor-generator sets 
to feed DC to their traction motors.
 
The rectifiers went straight from N&W to the New Haven in the  summer of 
1963,  NH arranged for a service engineer from the GE New  York office to come 
to New Haven and check them out.  As it happened,  that summer was when I 
was doing my three-month field assignment as part of  my 21-month rotating 
training assignments for what was then the Locomotive  and Car Equipment 
Department of GE, and I had been assigned to the NY Office  for that assignment 
(which was very convenient because we were living on  Long Island at the 
time).  I was invited to come along for the  inspection, which was a great 
experience.  The New Haven folks remarked  that "GE had learned a lot about 
packaging the rectifier equipment since the  EP-5's."
 
Dave Phelps
 
 
In a message dated 10/21/2012 9:11:57 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org writes:

Hi Group, please forgive the ignorance of a Yankee  member.- Were the VGN 
EL-2b's, the "hood style" rectifier locomotives  delivered by General 
Electric to the VGN?  If so, some of them came  to the New Haven Railroad, probably 
in the 1960's and probably by way of  General Electric-Erie Works. They 
passed from the New Haven into Penn  Central then into Conrail.  I'm a member 
of the Railroad Museum of  New England and the museum owns one of the units 
in very faded Conrail  blue and minus it's main transformer due to it's 
concentration of PCB's in  the transformer oil. It will never run again, there's 
no main transformer  and the 20 mile Naugatuck Railroad subsidiary of the 
museum has  absolutely no centenary. 
Stewart Fritts

----- Original Message ----- 
From:  _NW Mailing List_ (mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)  
To: _NW Mailing List_ (mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)  
Sent: Monday, October 08, 2012 9:39  PM
Subject: Re: End of Service for VGN  EL-2B Streamliners



Sorry I can't answer  all your inquiries about the EL2b's. I do have a 
note, of which I do  not remember the source, that says the EL2b's were scrapped 
at the  Peck Iron 
& Metal Co.  in south Richmond. Maybe this will jog someone's memory with 
the details.
 
Jeff Sanders



 
 

From: NW Mailing List <_nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org_ 
(mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org) >
To: _nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org_ (mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)   
Sent: Friday, October  5, 2012 1:59 PM
Subject: End of Service for VGN  EL-2B Streamliners


I've seen several accounts of the  end of the EL-2Bs which say they were 
taken out of service and scrapped  between 1959 and 1962.  The early date is 
clearly incorrect as  McClure and Plant show several pictures in their book 
of these motors in  service into at least Oct. 1960.  Can anyone clear up the 
history  of the final days of the EL-2Bs?  When were they actually taken 
out  of service?  Were they stored for a while before disposal?   Were they 
sent back to General Electric or were they scrapped by some  local company?  
If so, who, when and where?  Many thanks for  your help.

Tom
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