The Illinois Railway Museum's Diesel Department announced on its Facebook page the acquisition of former Chicago & North Western SD50 7009, still in C&NW yellow and green paint (save for an NREX reporting mark patch) at National Railway Equipment's Silvis, Ill. facility. It is one of 35 SD50 models C&NW acquired, built with 3600-hp engines and among its last diesels before the UP acquisition of C&NW. Acquired with donated funds, it is expected to be transported by rail to Union shortly. It's believed to be the first EMD SD50 officially preserved.

I felt old enough this morning but this has me getting another cup of coffee. I remember when these were the newest locomotives on the C&NW and the - to be polite - "mixed reviews" I got from people in the mechanical department.

In the early 1980's I was CR's Assistant Superintendent at Cleveland, where pellet ore was loaded and hauled via the Cleveland Line (ex PRR C&P Branch) to Mingo. The ascending grade started at the Lakefront and continued several miles to the area of Maple Heights.

With 4 SD-40s these trains made the grade uneventfully. If any one of the 4 units failed, however, we'd have to scramble for a helper.

IIRC, it was 1984 and CR had acquired its SD-50s, of which two would be assigned to this service. Our first response to this news was "ONLY TWO?? NO WAY!!

These units had the first radar-based wheel slip control system we had seen. They were extraordinarily sure-footed and I can't recall any instance of a stall, even though they did labor into short-time amperage regularly.

They were the first on CR to be nicknamed "Cadillacs" - at a time when the label was taken to denote "best in its class".

Congratulations to IRM - and to RBM&N - for saving and operating these engines in their latter days.

I'm glad to see some of these later diesels, like this SD50 or the GE AC6000W and Dash-8 at the Lake Shore Railway Museum, get preserved. It seems like a lot of these might go the way of the EMD E7: Common right up until they suddenly are not.

Yeah, an SD50 (and a worn looking one at that) going to a museum (even IRM) makes me into an artifact as well, admittedly.

I lived for nine years alongside the Conrail ex-EL main line at Waterboro, NY east of Jamestown; got there in '84, when it was still powered by six-axle GE's and SD40-2's. But by about '86 or so, a paired set of SD50's back to back was standard power on OIEL and ELOI. CR's always looked sharp and surprisingly clean in blue, worthy successors to EL SD45's of my college years. Sure was better than CR patched stuff of the late 70's. But yeah, always had the feeling that they drew that assignment as 'secondary' power somewhat unloved after a couple years. They lasted on that route right up until it was severed by CR west of Jamestown in '91. That's today's WNYP, BTW. The very last through train I saw as a rather hot-running military special behind a pair of them running a solid but short train of Patriot missile batteries on DODX and TTX flats. Next day the line was cut supposedly due to poor track conditions, don't get me started on that again.

I never heard of any road failures on CR though, at least through the local crews.

Whew. Another E7 situation avoided. Thank goodness.

That said, I'd still love to see one of those show up at the RR Museum of PA in blue. But now that this one is safe, maybe it's worth thinking about the SD60i.

Go big or go home: SD80MAC.

There is a good opportunity here to combine the preservation of the locomotive with collecting printed documentation and the stories of those whose job it was to deliver and maintain them in service. Could the invitation list for the 100th anniversary of EMD celebration held at IRM this year provide a springboard for this?

The big story—realizing the benefits of new technology in the real world—is one that will be relevant for some time to come. A locomotive provides a dramatic context to tell this story.

Here are a few Trainorders.com discussions noting the post-delivery issues encountered with the delivery of the Super Series:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/ ... 10,5565053

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,90803

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/ ... 11,5331410

I probably should have clarified that by the time the dust had settled (or the paint had chalked), the 7000's were apparently more or less "fixed." It took a while; I was on hand to see one of the units getting some engine work done at one of the C&NW shops around 1987 or 1988, and there was not much bad-mouthing going on, just a general feeling that the prime mover had been pushed past its limits. This was near the time that scuttlebutt about GE's (gasp!) being looked at started, and while I think there may have been a bit of nostalgia being indulged in even then, those guys were generally not shy about discussing the bad actors.

I thought all the Conrail Cadillacs are gone. Or does CP still have a few of the ones they ended with kicking round?

If we're playing this game, I'd like to see Monticello or IRM get one of the ex-IC SD70s before they either get scrapped or run through a rebuild.that obliterates all traces of their identity.

Sorry to have to bring this up again, but the "window" for talking with the people who did the work is just about closed. I worked with two younger EMD Training Center instructors to develop the electrical and mechanical instruction programs for the 40X and 50 series, and both of the instructors have now passed. That project began just about 45 years ago and the absolute closing of the "window" to talk with people who participated in a project is seldom more than 50 years.

I rode the SD50's and the GP50's many times doing tests and observing operation, and have many stories about them, some quite amusing, but they vastly exceed my typing ability for an RYPN post.

The program research, notes and development materials are going (or have gone) to Barriger Library. They expressed an interest in locomotive manufacturers training program development materials when nobody else in the preservation field was interested. You can see from this forum that there is very little interest in locomotive builders educational activities in the preservation industry/hobby. When training programs are mentioned the response here is usually "crickets".

Barriger Library also was willing to take the marine materials due to the large population of EMD engines in inland marine service, and I taught the entire EMD product range, not just the locomotives. So it is a good "fit" for them and for me, and I do not have to search and separate all the marine materials from the railroad documents in the collection.

Regarding the current EMD organization, I went to an LMOA meeting a while back and one railroad official had a question about 567C engines. The couple of current EMD employees present led him to me for an answer, which was quite amusing because I left EMD 35 years ago.

Anyone interested in seeing 50-series units being built, see the third part of "Inside EMD" in R&LHS Railroad History #220, many of the units shown being built are 50-series.

PC

Ugh

The SD50 experience on Conrail was interesting. As RPC stated they were lugging machines but they were not without problems. The basic platform was sound and worthy of investment and a group was selected to go through a modification program at Altoona.

The 16-645F was at the outer limits of its endurance and this was addressed by upping the cooling capacity with higher HP cooling fans and using premium power assemblies with tin plated pistons. When the term of the lease was concluded I recall that there was litigation with the finance company on the unmodified units as the finance company took the position that Conrail was "not maintaining them properly".

Conrail also had speciality electrical test equipment developed that allowed calibration of the wheel creep system to be performed in an easier fashion.

Also, if I recall 6707 was fitted with our first locomotive born GPS system that looked at location and some other basic health and welfare items.

Although the SD50's seemed to be maligned by some and with cause, the units that went through the Altoona program were good performers.

EBL

A BN SD70MAC would be a really good choice for preservation, as the guys that did the design work are still around, not to mention it being a popular, successful design.

I look forward to seeing more 80's and 90's era engines saved, although I fear we are still really lacking in early 40 line and -2 stuff (SD40T-2 being a prime example).