A promotional short--I think originally from Popular Science magazine--on the GM Train of Tomorrow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEfznj0-Ac8

And on the topic of the Train of Tomorrow, the E7A still exists, although rebuilt to E9 specs and currently lacking the prime movers. It is now in the guise of New York Central 4096 at the Danbury Railway Museum (owned by Ed Bowers). Link to the page on DRM's website regarding the 4096.
http://www.danbury.org/DRM/nyc4096.htm

This brings up an interesting question. There have been steam locomotives "backdated" to appear as they did earlier in their careers. Might it be possible to backdate something like this E9 to look as it did when it was an E7? What would have to be done? With no prime movers, the internal part would be no problem. Just thinking outloud this morning!

Les

I don't think it would be impossible. You could base the car-body details off the PRR E7 in Strasburg if a reference is needed.... Once I find a stable paying job that doesn't expire at the end of the summer (so I can pay for gas) I'd gladly lead the work to backdate 4096. But does the lease agreement with Ed Bowers allow that type of work? Probably not, so either DRM would have to buy 4096 or make some sort of agreement. Give me the money and I'll even throw in two 567 or 645 prime movers to make 4096 operable (as long as it's the type that was used in its operational days, no harm no foul, right?). That last sentence is what we geeks call a "pipe dream", and that would involve cubic amounts of a form of currency made of cotton-based rag paper dyed green, called the "United States Dollar", whatever that is ;)

Not to pick nits, but the E9 does have both prime movers still in it. It is however lacking traction motors and and quite a bit of other equipment, too numerous to list at this time.

If your going for an exact restoration to it's as built appearance as an E7, you'd almost need another E7 to steal parts from. They made a ton of changes. The more obvious ones are the complete rebuilding of the roof and side panels. The less obvious are the new cab and side engine room doors, the side skirts, the fuel tank, the side cab windows, the number boards, the location and style of the sand fillers, the pilot, and on and on and on. And that's jut the stuff on the outside. Cooling, exhaust, and many other internal changes would have been made as well.

The differences between an E7 and E8 are so numerous, I wonder if they didn't just put an E8 body on an E7 frame. There are no E7 characteristics left that I can see.

I am surprised that so far, no one has mentioned that one of the cars, "Moon Glow," the former observation car, still exists, but is in rough condition:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=28788

http://www.standard.net/topics/features ... es-station

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7002 ... -away.html

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32234

http://trainweb.org/DOMEmain/picGMMoonglow.jpg

I'm going to risk of being one of those "wouldn't it be neat if. . ." guys, but considering how rough the car is now, would it be that much extra work to take it back to its former end-of-train configuration if and when restoration takes place?

Oh, also from the Popular Science film library, CTC on the UP--with a "modern" station in Las Vegas. I don't think the station still exists, though:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOhD9kCt ... ure=relmfu

Is it even likely that E9 is truly rebuilt from an E7? Many of these so-called "rebuildings" involve a few components plucked from the old units for reuse in the new but not much else. Like B&O Model E #51 at the B&O Museum was "rebuilt" into a later model yet (old) 51 is still with us.

Steve

Steve hit it exactly. Locomotive Rebuild Order (called LRO by EMD) transactions involved the salvage of certain reusable parts from the trade-in locomotive, and everything else was scrapped. On the sales proposal for an LRO transaction they usually included a shaded diagram of the old locomotive showing what would be reused, and it was a very minor portion of the product.

PC

The "Moon Glow" dome observation car has been moved from its outdoor, unprotected storage place of the last 2-3 years (which I photographed in one of the above linked threads.) Hopefully, it's been moved to a secure indoor location, but I haven't been able to determine if that's the case. UtahJosh are you out there?