I just happen to be reading about the NYO&W diesel engines the other night. Three of their 44 tonners had MU capability. It could be done with the FT and F units they had so why not the 44 tonners.

I don't know how it's done, but the G.E. instruction books for a 44-ton loco tell how to run them in Multiple Unit, so it must have been available on new engines, as well as PRR rebuilds. Possiibly the MU variety has a pneumatic throttle, like the reverser in the single units. The photo of a 44-ton MU cab on page 9 of this link:
Http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/manual/44ton.pdf
shows a trolley car type controller instead of a throttle and quadrant.

I had the opportunity to look under the hood of one of the O&W 44 tonners about a year ago. Sitting over the main generator is a mechanism with linkages and three solenoid valves, which controls the governor. It looks similar to the "grasshopper motor" used on the Alco switchers and RS-1. This unit had MU receptacles with 12 pins, IIRC.

I remember reading somewhere that the PRR GS-4s with MU had it applied to one end only, but I may be mistaken.

The photo in the manual shows what seems to be the same controller that was in a remote controlled 45 tonner that I was familiar with at one time. That unit had only seven throttle notches, instead of the usual eight that larger units have. (I also like the cover, reproduced, that says Alco/GE; that's how the 44s and the 70T were marketed).

CORRECTION: After digging out my GE 44-tonner operating manual, I see that "Pennsy Power II" is not infallible. The actual tractive effort for a 44-tonner is 26,000 pounds, not 13,000 as I found in the book. But that's still less than an A-5s.

Any true Pennsy fan would know, that when any Brunswick Green painted loco (now or back in the day) sits in the sun, the Green becomes more evident. Nature of the "tint" in the paint.

The 44 tonner must be powerful enough...they had it hauling the regular excursions not long ago when 90 developed a problem. The 33 handled the last regular run and the dinner train...both 8 cars long....thats like what, damn near 450 tons of dead weight, plus the weight of the passengers.....from a dead stop at Groff's too...up the grade?....must have more muscle than I thought.

I have run trains for the Pennsylavania and Southern Railway which is the industrial railroad at the Letterkenny Army Depot outside of Chambersburg Pa. They have two 80 ton GE centercabs that have been retrofitted with EMD control stands and 26 brake. They are very nice to run and they can be MU'ed..

At the Southeastern Railway Museum, we have NYO&W 104 and Hartwell 2, both GE 44 ton locomotives. We have mu'd these locomotives before. The governer control is electro-pnuematic.

Dale

I stopped by and looked at it last evening, a little after 6. I could barely detect the green until I compared the body to the skirting, which is black. Then I could see a little difference. In my photos, though, it's very green. It's also very shiny.
In any case, it's looking a whole lot more loved than it used to.
Nice job.

.

I'm just quoting what our friendly neighborhood FRA mechanical man told us. We like to do what he says.

I think it may have something to do with the fact that the existing windows are pretty cloudy. One is broken (spider webbed).

Reminds me of the old story about the owner of the antique car that wanted his car painted to match the one paint chip he had EXACTLY. No matter how hard the shop owner blended the paint, the customer found fault with the batches. Then the owner's father came in and took over, In ten minutes, the customer was enthusiastically pumping the father's hand, extoling his virtues, and promising to bring in another restoration project.

After the customer was gone, Junior asks, "Okay, old man, what's your secret?"

"Nothing, really. I got Billy Bob to distract him, then I painted the chip."

True story. <:-)

Apologies to the SRR guys, but the hill at Groff's is NOT much of a hill. Come run a train on the 2.3% past the water tank in Rion and THEN talk to me about hills!

Our engine had no problem with a 90 ton diner and a 50 ton coach on a 1.1% grade. Clif always grumbled about lugging the diner along, but as far as I could tell the engine barely noticed it. He grumbles about lugging the diner now, when he's running the SW8s or the RS4s, too, and I *know* they don't notice the diner.

Our engine would get up and hustle, too. Especially the trip just before lunch, when Clif wanted to beat the deer hunters to the buffet line.

Regarding the MU -- come to think of it, I think there is only a receptical on the front of the 33 and none on the rear. I do remember it's a nonstandard plug, about half the size of the MU recepticals on the SW8s and RS4s.

Here's a photo of our #33, taken by me a couple years ago. This is the rear end -- no MU. She doesn't look anywhere near as good as the 9331, I'm afraid. I thought the original number of ours was 9339, but it may have been 9336. BTW, this is the only locomotive I've ever seen that blows perfect smoke rings!

Yes, but "The Diesel" as we called it can not make any speed. It will lug weight up the hill, but the train will be late. One day Redd, my engineer, discovered a broken spring hanger on 31 at Paradise, and we had to use The Diesel for the rest of the day. We lost all of our rest breaks at the depot that day. Redd hated The Diesel.

I've only operated a 50-ton GE (ballasted 44-tonner) in freight service with 2-3 cars. However, I've been told by a couple of old heads on the PRR that the GS-4's were quickly found to have a tendency to cook traction motors under power braking conditions, a situation that was confirmed to me by a tourist railroad engineer who shall remain nameless (to protect the guilty).

The PRR fitted a few of its 44-tonners with m.u. in an effort to replace B-6sb 0-6-0's as coach yard switchers. It didn't work too well, though. The old Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley interurban in upstate Pennsylvania scrapped its historic Westinghouse electric box cab locomotives in favor of a 44-tonner around 1954, and they quickly found that the little engine couldn't drag loaded coal hoppers out of loading tracks at several coal breakers along their line. An SW-8 from owner Lackawanna did a much better job.

Somewhere in my heaps of stuff, I have a photocopy of a PRR document that spells out the formula for "standard engine black." It's something like 10 or 12 parts black to one part medium green. Only under certain lighting conditions does a green tinge appear at all, but it's enough to make it green. As far as I know, "Brunswick green" was never an official PRR designation for the hue.