How many museums have diesel locomotives on display with hoods or doors removed to show the machinery?

PC

We do a Touch a Truck, Train & Critter event where we have all the hood doors and cab open where we explain what they're looking at. The line for that can get long.

We have a cutaway Birney Trolley at Electric City TM in Scranton.

Phil Mulligan

And the cutaway trolley is a superb display!

PC

The National Museum of Transportation near St Louis has a former UP GE U26C, the sole survivor of this model, with its hoods removed and parts labeled. It had been used as a training device for mechanics by UP, which removed the hoods and sectioned its air compressor, and then donated it to the museum once it was no longer useful to them.

Are any of the thirteen UP DDA40X units in preservation being displayed with any of the engine/alternator machinery visible? What a perfect locomotive for one-sided machinery display, since you would be seeing one engine/alternator set from right bank side and the other from left bank side.

PC

Perhaps the greatest 'road not taken' in all of diesel preservation was the pair of E-unit cabs that sat just outside the gated VMT storage 'yard' a couple of decades ago. They had lost every bit of their side paneling, and all the machinery was on display through the bridge structure of the side girders. All you'd need would be multicolored paint and some large numbers to identify items for a posted 'key', and perhaps some clear plastic side sheets, and you'd have a tremendous display; you could then further 'section' parts like the compressor or the engine block and visible head to show the workings...

LIKE THIS..............

PC

Special note to museum administrators: Sorry about all those people standing in line, blocking the view of the locomotive. This is a common problem with surviving photos of these units, they usually have hundreds of people standing around just looking at them. I will endeavor to find less obstructed photos, with fewer visitors, to post in the future.

Here is a photo of the UP U28C cut-away at the National Museum of Transportation near St Louis.

And here is a close-up with myself giving a tour on the loco.

On my summer vacation in 2023, I was surprised and impressed to find several museums that had EMD engine blocks on display:

Steamtown surprisingly had a block with the top deck covers open, as well as the airbox and crankcase

B&O RR museum also had an engine block on display in the Car Shop building, and I think a piston on display

RR Museum of Pennsylvania had a GP30 on display, with the cab and engine room doors open for full display. The engine block also was open with the top deck, airboxes, and crankcase visible if I recall.

I have all of these visits detailed on my youtube channel: ehadder.

As someone who works with 645 engine blocks on a regular basis, I think their construction and operation is fascinating, and I was very excited to see these museums showcasing that technology, even in locations that were known for their preservation of steam locomotives. Unfortunately, I did not see the long lines of spectators as evidenced in the photo above.....

The complete EMD F3 machinery set is shown at the 1947 open house. All those people keep getting in the way.

PC

Is there any museum out there that has a cutaway of a locomotive diesel that is put into motion? A number of years back I was running the EMD at a local tourist railroad. We had extra time between trips so I was on the ground talking to some riders. I struck up a conversation with a gentleman who built injectors for Detroit Diesel (in the 2 stroke days). I popped one of the hood hatches and a valve cover and let him see the top deck in action. The look of amazement on his face was unforgettable. A number of other people were able to see it before we ran out of time.

On a side note, one of the coolest engine related museum displays I have seen was at the Manitowoc Maritime Museum in Wisconsin. They have one of the triple expansion steam engines from the scrapped RR ferry Chief Wawatam hooked to an electric motor that visitors can control with an authentic engine order telegraph.

I've listened to some groups that have attempted to do something similar with British diesel engines, and my understanding from reading their accounts is that it's a logistical and mechanical nightmare, MUCH better done by building and displaying either a model/mock-up or using computer animation. Some of the diesel groups are lucky enough to have sourced such models from the manufacturers ages ago.

Sure, in an ideal world, I'd love to be able to snap my fingers, make the outer shell of an E9 or F40PH or GP9 or whatever vanish, then show visitors the entire start-up and shut-down process on a 567, 645, or whatever, then open a valve case cover and show everything I can show them clattering away. But we'd be wearing out an engine that would have to be maintained just to be shown off in this fashion, not do any productive work, and it would need to be run for a while to get up to optimal temp, oil delivery, etc. And this all presumes no hazards to people from spinning drive shafts, generators, etc.

The B&O Railroad Museum has (or had) on display a very large (like eight feet long or whatnot) cutaway model of an EMD E8, I believe on loan from the Smithsonian, which is quite impressive in its own right and makes for an adequate substitute for cutting away one of the locos on site.

The Director of Public Relations at EMD told me the cutaway E8A model currently on display at the B&O Museum originally cost about 1/4 the price of an actual locomotive. The model is shown banded to its traveling shipping dolly.

PC