Friday, November 8, 2013

Because It's Friday

Challenger #3985 hauling a freight train. This is what she was made to do back in 1943 when she left the ALCO plant.



Note the caboose at the rear and that there were no "helping" diesels.
on or about

8 comments:

  1. LRod11/08/2013 11:20 AM

    Last week's Trains and Locomotives airing on RFD-TV was a UP Steam film of the 844, from rollout through the mid-'90s rebuild and through the 2000s rebuild. Lots of detail on tubing and "sheet" metal (½" plate is hardly sheet, in my book).

    Interestingly, and ironically, based on last weeks comments about helpers, one of the first happenstances after the '90s rebuild was on the return to CYS they encountered a stalled drag headed by an SD-60, and wound up pushing it into the yard.

    They also mentioned running small freight drags as part of their (UP) steam program, highlighting the 844 for braking—the exact opposite of the excuse I've heard (and cited last weak) for having a diesel in the consist when 844 (or 3985) is on the road.

    For all that, it was interesting seeing the passenger combo with 844 on the point and an A-B-A set of E9s cut in behind the aux tender. Were there ever any prettier diesels than the Es and Fs? I've remarked elsewhere that EMD could house a modern SD motor in E/F tin and they'd look great in service. Maybe they could get some market back from GE by going retro…

    LRod
    ZJX, ORD, ZAU retired

    ReplyDelete
  2. Comrade Misfit11/08/2013 12:01 PM

    I'll admit that EMD's E/F series locomotives were nicely designed. So were Baldwin's "Sharknose" and the ALCO cab units.

    Amtrak's current ones, like the ones that are used by Metro-North, leave me cold.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Chuck Pergiel11/08/2013 4:26 PM

    I'm confused. This looks like a modern freight train. Is this loco working? I thought steam had been relegated to demos.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Comrade Misfit11/08/2013 9:55 PM

    It's a modern train. But when the UPRR is moving #3985 from one place to another, they have been known to put her to work hauling freight.

    Heck, it's what she was built to do.

    ReplyDelete
  5. BadTux11/10/2013 1:56 AM

    From Wikipedia: Locomotive and tender combined weight 1,073,900 lb.

    Wow. Not the biggest locomotive ever built (that was of course the 4-8-8-4 Big Boy), but the sheer *scale* of this thing is just astounding.

    Of course, with modern electric motor controls and diesel-electric locomotives there's no need for a huge engine like this, they just string multiple locomotives together as needed and control them all from one point. But you can't do that with steam, so... you get the Challengers and Big Boys.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Comrade Misfit11/10/2013 10:35 AM

    "Modern electric controls", being circa late 1930s when EMC began building E and F series locomotives.

    ReplyDelete
  7. BadTux11/10/2013 9:31 PM

    Hey, that's modern compared to steam, which was basically 19th century technology scaled up. WAY up.

    And I assume you meant EMD. Since EMC makes computer storage gear :).

    But yes, that flexibility is one reason why the diesel-electrics took over the world. No more need to buy huge locomotives that can only be used economically on extremely long loads, just throw as many smaller locomotives at the load as needed, then when you break the train send the locomotives off with the pieces to their final destinations. Still, I hope to see a Big Boy running before I die... UP says they should have it up and going in four or five years, but who knows?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Comrade Misfit11/10/2013 10:55 PM

    It was "EMC" back then. It became EMD during the war.

    (Kind of pissed me off when they moved locomotive production to Canada after NAFTA was signed.)

    ReplyDelete

House Rules #1, #2 and #6 apply to all comments. Rule #3 also applies to political comments.

In short, don't be a jackass. THIS MEANS YOU!
If you never see your comments posted, see Rule #7.

All comments must be on point and address either the points raised in the blog post or points raised by commenters in response.
Any comments that drift off onto other topics are subject to deletion.

(Please don't feed the trolls.)

中國詞不評論，冒抹除的風險。僅英語。

COMMENT MODERATION IS IN EFFECT UFN. This means that if you are an insulting dick, nobody will ever see it.