In reply to NickD : That's pretty.
In reply to NickD : That's pretty.
In reply to 914Driver :
That's the old D&RGW Utah Division, which became Union Pacific's Provo Subdivision after UP bought out SP/D&RGW. BNSF won trackage rights to run coal trains of their own over the Provo Subdivision, but contracted the actual handling of the trains out to G&W/Utah Railway.
In addition to tinkering with Caterpillar engines for rebuilds, Morrison-Knudsen also went on a spree of trying to repower locomotives with Swiss-built Sulzer engines in the 1970s. One of the efforts resulted in the TE70-4S, which looked like a love child between a GP30 and a U25B. Southern Pacific had a pretty sizable fleet of GE U25Bs that were getting long in the tooth, and while they were considering replacement, M-K pitched the idea of overhauling them and repowering them all with Sulzer 12ASV25/30 V12s. The engine was capable of 3240hp, but M-K rated them at 2800hp in this application. One of Southern Pacific's big requirement was that they retain as many standard components as possible and that they play nice with other equipment, in terms of M.U. capability, and so they retained the trucks, frames, traction motors, main generator, cabs and nose. The long hood was rebuilt ten inches higher, and four inches wider to accommodate the Sulzer engine.
M-K and Sulzer footed the majority of the bill on converting the first four locomotives, since they were to basically serve as demonstrator units. M-K outshopped them in unique bright orange and red livery that was evocative of the old Daylight livery. Arriving on the SP in 1978, the first revenue run occurred on March 1, 1978, when the four locomotives were assigned to a Seattle-LA piggyback train. In an auspicious start to their career, and a portent of things to come, one of the TE70-4Ss suffered a mechanical failure on their inaugural run and had to be set out.
Nicknamed "Popsicles" by railfans for their bright paint, they were nicknamed "junk" by shop crews, as the TE70-4Ss proceeded to suffer a number of mechanical issues during their career. Exhaust valve failures and piston crown failures were particularly frequent and required several changes in materials to ultimately solve. Maintenance of the cooling system was a time-consuming process, because the two sixty-inch cooling fans driven by hydrostatic (instead of electric) motors that received high-pressure oil from an engine-mounted oil pump. They were also prone to developing leaks and puking hydraulic fluid everywhere. Because the engines were not designed for low-speed, high-load running for hours on end overheating was such an issue that, despite the increased surface area, SP moved the dynamic brake grids from the radiator side inlets to the roof to try and rectify the problem. Maintenance crews also didn't care for the "differentness" of the engines and the new, more in-depth service procedures. There was also issues with poor parts supply. With EMD or GE, or even the Caterpillar, engines, parts were pretty easily available, but with the Swiss-built Sulzer engines, parts either had to be loaded in a shipping container and moved by ship, or flown air freight at considerable expense. Also, while the TE70-4Ss should have been able to MU with other power without issue on paper, they never quite played nice with other machines, leaving SP to assign the four together as a set.
The poor reliability, combined with the recession, tanked the TE70-4S rebuild program and SP decided to retire the other 64 U25Bs instead. Reportedly, M-K/Sulzer had thought it was a done deal, and had started construction on the engines for the additional 50 U25Bs that SP planned to rebuild. They ended up turning and selling the engines off for marine usage. SP ran the four TE70-4Ss that they had intermittently, before parking them in 1981, and officially retiring them in 1987.
The three "Popsicles" on their maiden run, after the fourth unit had been cut out due to mechanical failure.
The #7033 near the end of her career at Roseville, CA in 1981. Wildly, after SP struck them from the roster in '87, they survived for another 20 years. The story goes that a guy had some Sulzer-powered ships and wanted the four engines from the TE70-4Ss. He had them set out on a spur off the old Western Pacific in Oakland, but never got around to scavenging the engines out of them. Then in the early 2000s he put them up for sale, as king some insane amount of money for locomotives that had been parked for 20 years, weren't particularly great when "new", hadn't been properly stored, and were now landlocked because UP had removed the switch spur. They were ultimately all cut up in 2007 after, surprise, no buyers materialized.
One of Morrison-Knudsen's lease units, a GP7, that they chopped the hood on it and installed a 1500hp Sulzer inline-6. In this shot it's up on the Bangor & Aroostook at Northern Maine Junction. You have to wonder how "happy" the BAR was to get this oddball unit to use. You can see one of the BAR's EMD BL2s in the background as well. Shockingly, this Sulzer-powered GP7 lasted a long time, and is actually still extant, although Morristown & Erie eventually removed the Sulzer engine for a conventional EMD V16
ATSF and Union Pacific also played with the idea of having SD45s repowered with Sulzer 3600hp 16-ASV25/30 engines. ATSF and UP, along with others, weren't terribly pleased with the reliability on the early V20 645s and so were pursuing a few avenues with different engines. There were a handful of Caterpillar-powered SD45s that were tested by UP, ATSF, and CNW, none of which proved very satisfactory. The idea of installing a Swiss-built engine as a means to improve reliability also seems like a bit of a desperate reach in retrospect. Union Pacific had six repowered (UP #60-#65), while ATSF went in on four (#5515, #5530, #5541, #5551). Teething troubles were such that the first five machines delivered to UP had been stored at Salt Lake City prior to the delivery of the sixth example, UP #65, in 1981. This last machine remained operational in 1982, serving as an engineering testbed in an attempt by the M-K personnel to make the Sulzer's roadworthy in the US operating environment. The continued tests were eventually terminated by M-K, and UP #65 returned to Salt Lake City joining the other five in storage. All of UP's were retired in December 1983, while ATSF's continued running until 1985, at which point they had their V20 645s reinstalled, and were eventually sold to Wisconsin Central. The removed Sulzer engines were sold for marine usage.
Spotting features of the Sulzer-powered SD45s were a long hood that had a section widened by 2" on each side (From the U in Union to about the C in Pacific), and an added vertical opening at the very rear of the long hood above the walkway. Issues with the engines were mostly related to inadequate engine cooling and high lube oil temperatures and there was also an alarmingly high usage of main and rod bearings.
914Driver said:Wanna play with steam? Only 370 miles from you.
I've seen where they're offering that. Pretty neat opportunity, although I'm not sure how well I'd fit in "the rolling ingot" at 6'3" and 250lbs. I recently learned where Western Maryland Scenic Railroad is offering "Hands On The Throttle" experiences with C&O 2-6-6-2 #1309 and, hoo boy, is that tempting. It's $1309, but you get a full hour and I believe you are hauling freight cars. Not too many opportunities to operate an articulated steam locomotive out there.
AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) said:Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:My daughter took me to Traintastic today. It was their opening day & you could tell some things had been rushed to get open, but overall was pretty cool & worth the visit. I didn't take any pics, but they had a variety of layouts from N through G.
I'm thinking about going there this summer myself.
It's worth the $15 for an hour or so to explore it.
So this weekend I was down to New Jersey and while I did not see the mythological Jersey Devil, I did see something almost as mythological: an operational Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton diesel locomotive.
Friday, I drove down to the old Englishtown dragstrip with my best friend to watch Round 4 of Formula Drift's 2023 season. That took up all of Friday and Saturday, but Sunday morning we were free. We just had to be back at a reasonable hour to go to work today.
Somehow, I talked my best friend, who is not a railfans (or even a car guy) that we should go an hour in the wrong direction to Woodstown, NJ. Woodstown is where SMS Rail Lines has begun operation of their new service, the Woodstown Central, which is an excursion line running from Salem to Swedesboro. They start at Woodstown, run north to Swedesboro, then reverse back through Woodstown and up to Salem and then come back to Woodstown. Eventually, SMS plans to run trips with the ex-USATC 0-6-0 and passenger coaches that they are restoring but for right now they're using their Baldwin diesels with an ex-Reading caboose.
The chase very rapidly fell apart. Right now, since this strip of ex-PRSL rail has long been dormany and SMS just started service on it, they don't really have a depot or any permanent structures yet. We used our GPS to go to the address that is listed on the Woodstown Central website. It took us to basically an empty field just south of Woodstown, but there was a chemical toilet there and a gravel driveway and some construction equipment. My first thought is "Okay, this is weird, but they just started up and they're probably going to build a platform here." But there was no railroad staff, nor was there a locomotive or caboose, just 15 minutes before departure time. My friend and I are standing around and a guy and his wife and kids wheels up and goes "Are you guys riding the train?" Nope, just here to photograph, tickets were all sold out. He goes "Oh, well, I am, and this the address they have listed but this doesn't seem right." They take off and we're still standing there and I'm thinking that even if they aren't departing from the field, they'll still go by. We hear a horn in the distance and we're standing there, standing there, hear them blow for another crossing, and then I look quick at my map and realize, duh, we're south of Woodstown, and they're going north out of Woodstown towards Swedesboro. We hop in the car and start driving along the line to Swedesboro, get up to a location and I look at a crossing and see the caboose, heading south. While we had been standing in this field, waiting, they had already gone north to Swedesboro and then headed south again. Cue a mad tear back to Woodstown and stumbling across the location where they are currently boarding. Also cue my dismay at finding them running cab-first now all the way down to Salem. Argh!
But, hey, it's a living Baldwin in the flesh (err, steel). SMS #304 is an S-12 switcher, which was their late 1200hp switcher offering, powered by a turbocharged De La Vergne inline-6. It was originally built for Monongahela Railroad, then was sold to Erie Mining, and then was bought by SMS when Erie Mining closed down and retired all their Baldwins. SMS ran it for a short while on acquisition, then decided to fully overhaul and restore it, including swapping the cab over from another one of the ex-Erie Mining S-12s that was mechanically junk, and paint it in the rather Reading Company-inspired green, black and yellow. Ironically, although the Reading owned a fair amount of Baldwin diesels, they never actually owned any S-12s though.
Heading south past the location in the field we were standing in, trailing a gorgeously restored ex-Reading caboose. Right now, Woodstown Central trips have very limited tickets, due to the fact that this caboose is the only "passenger car" that they have in service.
The crossing this shot was actually taken at was being flagged by an SMS employee. Since the track was dormant for a while, some of the crossings haven't been reactivated yet.
Ignore the SMS logo on the locomotive and a few other clues and you'd swear that this was some sort of Reading crew coming back from servicing a customer on a remote branch.
At Salem they ran around the train (I couldn't get near where they turned) and then headed back to Woodstown, now running back the proper way.
Exiting one green tunnel
And entering another.
Crossing a fill and small trestle while entering Woodstown. Oh, if only the lighting had been better.
Idling at Woodstown while passengers for the 10:00 excursion detrained and passengers for the noon trip boarded. I would have liked to have chased the noon trip and gotten some better photos, but I also felt kind of bad dragging my friend along and we had a 5 hour drive home ahead.
I do like the headlight treatment on the Baldwin S-12s. It reminds me a lot of a mantle clock.
The caboose has those unusual Taylor trucks that Reading Company seemed so fond of.
A glimpse at the builder's plate. The S-12 was a relatively late product from Baldwin, and by that point, the Baldwin Locomotive Works/Lima-Hamilton merger had gone through, so it has a Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton builder's plate.
I also didn't realize that my friend took a photo of yours truly taking a photo until he posted it on Facebook today.
(For those wondering what my shirt says, it's from a drift culture company called Battle Gang and says "Count your blessings, not your days")
The video is a little shakey because I didn't bring my tripod, because I really didn't expect to do this. I brought along my camera because I was undecided if I was going to bring it into the Formula Drift round, then ultimately decided not to. The De La Vergne prime mover is pretty distinct sounding, I think, having heard one in the flesh now. EMDs tend to purr or hum, probably because of the two-stroke design. Alcos tend to have a weird clattering chant to them. The De La Vergne engine is just a long, continuous rasp.
Is this a little better? Just a quick edit on a small file, so there are limits to what I could do (hope you don't mind).
In reply to 02Pilot :
Much better! The caboose no longer looks like it's hanging in mid-air.
Lou
In reply to 02Pilot :
Definitely better. Thank you. The tree to the right of the bridge was also a hassle. If you got a photo of the locomotive on the bridge, or with the consist centered on the bridge, the tree blotted out the caboose.
That's definitely the difficulty of shooting trains. Often, you just get one shot at it for the day. And depending on how the tracks are laid, you're fighting the light sometimes. You can't just move or reposition or repose things, or try again. Or foliage is in your way. There was one spot where there was potential for a good shot, but there was a huge crop of mulleins in the way. I've had tree branches that have waved into the foreground and caused the camera to autofocus on those on occasion as well. I recently saw a guy who was carrying a small pair of brush clippers in his pocket to snip off weeds or trim back branches a little, and it seems like a great idea.
One of the Monongahela Railway's fleet of 27 Baldwin S-12s, which was where SMS Rail #304 came from (it was Mongahela #415). The Monongahela ordered their S-12s with multiple-unit connections on both ends of the locomotives and would dispatch them in solid sets of three or four on coal drags. It was a rather strange, and not often photographed, operation. By this point, the Monongahela had retrofitted them with twin sealed-beam headlamps, which made them look a bit more liked an EMD SW-series. They ran them into the late-'60s/early-'70s before scrapping some and selling the others to Erie Mining. Monongahela would also gain fame in the '60s when they purchased traded-in ex-New York Central Baldwin RF-16As and Bs and ran them until around 1973-1974. Most of them would be scrapped, since they had been rendered inoperable by rough treatment on the Monogahela, but two RF-16As, the #1205 and #1216, would be purchased by Delaware & Hudson, and the rest is history.
I didn't realize until yesterday that my route back north took me near Bridgeport, NJ, which is where SMS' shops are. I wish I had known that, because I would have swung by and seen if any of their other interesting equipment was visible. In addition to the S-12 that they are running at Woodstown, they have a couple more S-12s, an earlier DS-4-4-1000 in PRR paint, a DS-4-4-750, a very early VO-1000 in B&O paint, and a big AS-616 road switcher, and that's just the Baldwins. They also have B23-7s, including a Conrail heritage unit, some ex-PRSL GP38s with larger cabs that accomodated dual control stands, and an ex-Illinois Central SW14.
I'll have to find my way back down there by myself sometime, I guess. From what I've heard, they are very friendly to railfans. One person said that if you go to the office, they'll give you a pass to go anywhere on their property, they'll let you know what is operating and where, the crews will usually let you know what industry they are headed to next, and its not uncommon to be offered to ride in the cab.
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