Thanks Gary, I had a brain freeze on the VMT unit. I knew it was there, I had seen it last month in fact.

"The answer is fuel economy. In the turbocharged engine, the scavenging is powered by the exhaust gas energy, while in the roots blown engine, its powered by the crank."--Jeff"

Well, not exactly. This is true in a 4 cycle engine (Alco 539, 244, 251, GE FDL, etc.) but the EMD turbo is gear train driven up to Notch 6, and thereafter it is driven by exhaust gas energy. That delightfully complex "overrunning clutch" (and consequently the high rebuild cost of their turbo) is one of several reasons to NOT like an EMD turbo. The GE and Alco turbos on the other hand are much more simple and cheaper when it comes time for a rebuild.

Alright, I'm amazed on how many NW paint schemes I've found over the last few years. First black, then red, and now some CDOT blue. What's next? Crazy hippie style schemes? But seriously, how many schemes did NW get over the years?

The Reading Co T&HS has one, #3640.

In the beginning there was red passenger and black freight. Then the Wabash and NKP, among others, were folded in and the motors got blue paint which was probably their most attractive scheme IMHO. Then it was black again with the name spelled out on the side (also not bad, before it got dirty) and then the all time sorriest scheme ever put on a locomotive; black with a simple NW on the sides. The current NS scheme is "classy" compared to the final N&W scheme.

The comment on RCT&HS jogs my memory a little as well. Don't they have a big century on Hi-Ad trucks, as well as a GP-30 and a 6 axle U-boat of some sort. I want to say the U boat is a real oddity, maybe a U28C?

I was also thinking that it might be proper to have one of the post E/F unit B units preserved.

Re - Light Rail Vehicle preservation..

Often we equate preservation with operations. While neither a vote for nor against, two key components to keep in mind with LRV's, one is the sealed window/air conditioning factor (if nothing else, an added maintenance need), and second, now you're starting to look at a new variety of electrical hardware and components not typically found at your existing museums.

Part of the solution to part two is of course enlisting younger members with an interest and potentially some hands-on working knowledge of such things. As the museum community ages, the knowledge and experience is also aged, much like the machines we work on. Newer cars and technologies will require new and younger people.

Goes for modern diesel equipment as well I suppose, but there's a much larger pool to draw from in general.

If you simply preserve it for sake of "making sure at least one will survive", you're not going to do much more than update the ongoing discussions of saving more than can ever be taken care of,, just saving 30 year old trolleys (in this case) instead of 100 year old ones.

One fairly significant locomotive series from a standpoint of advancing the technology is the EMD 50 series, which introduced controlled rate of wheel creep to replace the previous long time practice of static wheel to rail contact systems. However very few of these still retain their original configuration today because the hardware was so quickly bypassed by microprocessor technology. Many of the 50's left running now have a Q-Tron QES-III control system or an equivalent.

And everything with the EMD 265H engine is passing from the scene. I heard recently that the sole marine operator of these engines was told that support for them will be ending soon, and they are planning on replacing them. Most of the ones in locomotives are gone already.

PC

Don't forget the skunk units (black body with a white stripe).

True, though IRM does have some equipment that will allow it to tell that story someday (and there are plans to do so). These include a very early 1926 TOFC car, a 1931 enclosed container car with an original container, and a 1955 piggyback flat that was part of the initial fleet at the start-up of TTX.

Very true, and that was used on GP-40s IIRC. There were also the few C-30-7s toward the end that were tuscan but obviously not passenger. Admittedly N&W schemes are not my strong suit, as I was on the other side of the merger. I kind of figured that there were others here that could "keep me in line" if I goofed this up too bad.

ETA

Strike one more off the "maybe" list--from Trains.com Newswire:

Don't forget NS has already donated a B32-8 to the Lake Shore Railway Historical Society. The UP unit makes a second preserved Dash 8.

I find it very odd that no Dash 7s have been preserved at all on that note, there are not many C boats left, and the B boats seem to mainly be Ex-Conrail and Ex-Southern Pacific in composition...

On that note, has a straight SD40 been preserved yet? I know that there are three SD40-2s in preservation,2 Union Pacific units (Pomoma,Ca and Barstow, CA) and the CNW unit at the IRM. No straight SD40s seem to exist in museums, however.

GN 325 SDP40 at MTM in St. Paul, MN

Ah, that is an SD40, but not a "Straight SD40". It has(or had) the steam generator for passenger service.

The only straight SD40 I have been able to find as preserved is IC 6071. Unless the three on the George's Creek Railway can be considered preserved, the only "true" SD40 preserved would be IC 6071, which may be suprising, but I think the fact that MANY SD40s were rebuilt into SD40-2s can point to that being the way it is.

If I recall correctly as well, NS is still holding the 3170 and 1580 for preservation, both of which are the first SD40s ordered by Southern (3170) and Norfolk & Western (1580). CSX also still has the 4617 sitting in a Cumberland,MD deadline. All very worthy examples of unrebuilt SD40s.

UP 1848:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=2276960

I hope IRM will be okay with that thing.

IC 6071 is not exactly a "straight" SD40. That's a prototype built on an SD35 frame.

I don't see the need for tons of post EMD 40 series or GE U series locomotives to be preserved. Just a few from each model line (50, 60, 70 series, Dash 7, Dash 8, Dash 9, etc.) scattered among the museums that can handle them. Most of the major variants will still be in widespread use for a decade or two.

Along with the ex-UP C630 in the Cotton Belt backshop in Pine Bluff is the ex-Litchfield & Madison RS3, the last RS3 built and I believe the final Alco built new with a 244 engine. In the same shop is ex-LS&I U23C 2300, the first of that model.
Alex Huff