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Delaware & Hudson PA1 #17 Engine Change Article
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Author:  PCook [ Fri Nov 10, 2017 9:34 am ]
Post subject:  Delaware & Hudson PA1 #17 Engine Change Article

The new issue of CLASSIC TRAINS due out 11/28 will include an article by Chris MacDermot about the emergency transplant of a 12 cylinder 244 engine into D&H PA1 locomotive #17 in 1973, following the failure of its 16-244 engine. The locomotive operated with the 12 cylinder engine until it was subsequently converted into a PA4 with a 12-251 engine by M&K in Boise. I think this article is quite unique for the look that Chris provides into the decision process involved in making the 1973 engine change. There was actually quite a lot of planning and modification work involved.

It is also an example of an article being generated by information given during an oral history interview. Chris was interviewed several years ago, about his work for Alco and the D&H. This was one of the stories that he told during that interview, now going into print.

PC

Author:  Overmod [ Fri Nov 10, 2017 1:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Delaware & Hudson PA1 #17 Engine Change Article

Praise be, I can be vindicated at last! I had been taken to task for this so often I began to think I was misremembering...

Yes, it's a good example of something that comes out of an oral interview that might otherwise never come to be written about ...

I think it may also point up one of the potential advantages of 'group interviews' where one person's comment or line of thinking might jog another's memory into recounting something of great significance they wouldn't have thought of otherwise. It would be interesting to know how and where in the interview Chris brought this up.

Author:  C430 [ Fri Nov 10, 2017 2:42 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Delaware & Hudson PA1 #17 Engine Change Article

Chris mentions the engine change in the book he wrote about the PA4s, but the total description was only a paragraph long. I'm looking forward to reading the article.

If anyone is interested, the 12 cylinder 244 that was removed from #17 still exists in former D&H RS3 #4099 at the AOS roundhouse.

B. Allan

Author:  PCook [ Fri Nov 10, 2017 3:39 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Delaware & Hudson PA1 #17 Engine Change Article

Overmod wrote:
It would be interesting to know how and where in the interview Chris brought this up.


I prodded Chris into discussing this topic when we did the oral history interview. I had met the D&H personnel in Binghamton the night in 1973 that the southbound "load test run" of the three PA's came in, to see #17, having been tipped off by my friends on the D&H and the EL that the unusual transplant had taken place. We did not have time then to discuss the details of the engine replacement, as everyone was getting ready for the Foliage Special the next morning. Years later, When I interviewed Chris, I reminded him of the events, and he brought out a fascinating story of how it had all happened. In the time since then I have kept reminding him that he needed to get the story into print, and he has now done so.

PC

Author:  greenwichlirr [ Sat Nov 11, 2017 6:22 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Delaware & Hudson PA1 #17 Engine Change Article

I had the pleasure to sit down with Chris and talk with him for a while a few years ago while working on a TV news history piece on The D&H shops at Colonie. Both gracious with his time and completely informative, Chris is really a class act. Somewhere I still have a dub of the complete interview.

As for #17, is the transplant the reasoning for the different side grilles?

Author:  PCook [ Sat Nov 11, 2017 10:18 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Delaware & Hudson PA1 #17 Engine Change Article

It is great that you got that interview.

If I recall correctly the Farr air intake panels on the #17 were a Santa Fe modification, I believe the locomotive had them when first received by the D&H. They were already on the locomotive long before the engine change.

The Farr panel, which provides some inertial filtration of incoming air, was introduced in the early 1950s. The locomotive builders were offering kits to retrofit older production by about 1954. The installation on #17 could have been for engineering evaluation, or a fleet modification project that did not get completed, or as the result of sideswipe damage (EL had one E8 that had them just on one side, and one that had them on both sides, both units the result of repairs after a sideswipe). The original parallel bar trim panels on the other PA's were a GE product, a result of Ray Patten's preference for groupings of parallel lines on his styling projects.

PC

Author:  davew833 [ Sat Nov 11, 2017 1:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Delaware & Hudson PA1 #17 Engine Change Article

Concur that the Farr side panels were an ATSF modification and were a part of #17 when D&H acquired it.

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