irm 515

rwkpullman · **Joined:** Thu Oct 07, 2010 12:39 pm **Posts:** 52

Coming to the Illinois Railway Museum is another diesel locomotive, ex CNW 515.

PMC · **Joined:** Sat Oct 17, 2015 5:55 pm **Posts:** 2876

rwkpullman wrote:

Coming to the Illinois Railway Museum is another diesel locomotive, ex CNW 515.

That is this E8, you can see who last owned it.

EJ Berry · **Posted:** Wed Dec 01, 2021 12:50 am

Is that a real numberboard or is it painted on? As I recall C&NW didn't use actual numberboards on their cab units.

Phil Mulligan

PMC · **Joined:** Sat Oct 17, 2015 5:55 pm **Posts:** 2876

EJ Berry wrote:

Is that a real numberboard or is it painted on? As I recall C&NW didn't use actual numberboards on their cab units.

Phil Mulligan

Indeed, see the below photo in commuter service. I wonder if it is vinyl, IOU Pacific apparently wrapped a lot of their cars in vinyl and some of the owners of cars IP leased were unhappy to find that the vinyl damaged the anodized aluminum.

patentable · **Posted:** Wed Dec 01, 2021 10:36 am

C&NW 411 at Union sports a numberboard. Pics of her in C&NW service, prior to Metra, also show a numberboard.
Pics of 515 in C&NW service do not show a numberboard.
A great acqusition for IRM. Will it eventually be repainted as a C&NW unit - or will it be left in IC colors to masquerade as a former IC unit?

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Wed Dec 01, 2021 12:29 pm

Purchased from the trustees/liquidators, reclaimed, donated, donated by a previous or new owner, or what?

Les Beckman · **Joined:** Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm **Posts:** 6482

patentable wrote:

Pics of 515 in C&NW service do not show a numberboard.
A great acqusition for IRM. Will it eventually be repainted as a C&NW unit - or will it be left in IC colors to masquerade as a former IC unit?

When these units were first delivered to the North Western, did they have number boards that were later removed by the railroad? Or were they delivered without them at the C&NW's request?

Les

PMC · **Joined:** Sat Oct 17, 2015 5:55 pm **Posts:** 2876

The photo I posted above of the C&NW commuter unit is 515, so it definitely did not have number boards at one point in time. You could see how the lack of number boards could easily lead to confusion.

mcgrath618 · **Joined:** Mon Feb 15, 2021 6:54 pm **Posts:** 231

Convert it to a Crandall Cab

wilkinsd · **Posted:** Wed Dec 01, 2021 7:13 pm

Les Beckman wrote:

patentable wrote:

Pics of 515 in C&NW service do not show a numberboard.
A great acqusition for IRM. Will it eventually be repainted as a C&NW unit - or will it be left in IC colors to masquerade as a former IC unit?

When these units were first delivered to the North Western, did they have number boards that were later removed by the railroad? Or were they delivered without them at the C&NW's request?

Les

When 515/5029B was originally delivered, I believe it had numberboards. The C&NW didn't have much use for them and they were gone before it was even renumbered for suburban service.

patentable · **Posted:** Wed Dec 01, 2021 8:13 pm

Picture posted today on the Chicago Area Railroad Historians Group - has a pic of C&NW E8 5029B --- with number boards - looks like they were recessed into the body.https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=48 ... 4260811039

This became METX 515.

Picture of C&NW 5033A with number boards at http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=3486844

bob

EJ Berry · **Posted:** Wed Dec 01, 2021 8:36 pm

C&NW 5033A has the EMD standard E8 and E9 numberboards. They are flush with the nose sheet metal. I think they were an improvement over the add-on angled numberboards on F3, F7 and E7 "bulldog" noses.

Was the renumbering from 5029B to 515 part of the conversion to HEP for commuter service?

Phil Mulligan

Les Beckman · **Joined:** Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm **Posts:** 6482

wilkinsd wrote:

When 515/5029B was originally delivered, I believe it had numberboards. The C&NW didn't have much use for them and they were gone before it was even renumbered for suburban service.

David -

I believe that the C&NW didn't have illuminated headlight number boards on their steam locomotives either. Maybe the diesel number board removal was a carryover from the steam era!

Les

Steamguy73 · **Joined:** Wed Dec 24, 2014 3:15 pm **Posts:** 635

patentable wrote:

C&NW 411 at Union sports a numberboard. Pics of her in C&NW service, prior to Metra, also show a numberboard.
Pics of 515 in C&NW service do not show a numberboard.
A great acqusition for IRM. Will it eventually be repainted as a C&NW unit - or will it be left in IC colors to masquerade as a former IC unit?

I imagine that when time and funding permits, it will get a repaint back into C&NW colors to be alongside the C&NW 411. That’s been the attitude for a lot of their other acquisitions.

Just remember the sheer amount of projects the IRM as a whole has. The diesel department is no exception.

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Thu Dec 02, 2021 1:03 am

All this rivet-counting blather on the numberboards, and no one's answering the REALLY relevant question:

How did IRM get it?

I didn't see any fund drives, etc.