Engine identification needed


C

Clair

New Member
Hi-
Just got these shots yesterday in the yard at New England Central Railroad Co. in St. Albans, Vermont. I would very much like to know what any/all kind of engines are shown. And many thanks.

The images didn't show up -- so I'm going off to make a web page and hope that at least that link will show up.

Should be up in a very few minutes.

Thanks much.

Clair
 
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Clair,

Pic 2, The loco at the front is an EMD GP35 (at least I think it is and as I'm still learning myself am prepared to be told otherwise! lol) I'm not sure about any in pic 1 though!
 
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First pic locos are chop nosed gp7s or 9s.Second photo is at least a gp35 its kind of hard to tell from the angle of the photo.
 
Dang, Josh, you're good. :) You can also tell an SD7/9 because they were the only EMD's that that the handrail stanchions that extended do far down the side sill, with a small vent louver between each stanchions. The SD 7 and SD9 are identical from the outside except of those classification lights. The SD 7 had classfication lights that were about midway between the headlight and the end of the hood and the SD9 has classification lights mounted right at the edge of the hood, as seen in the picture.
 
You're welcome, I've got a wealth of info in this head, and what I can't pick by view, I can try my darnedest to find.

The simple way to figure out that CEFX unit is the red nose with white stripes, CEFX put them on Fmr UP SD40-2's (yellow body showing a bit).
 
I'm sorry but an SD-9 is meant to have a high hood. Those are some ugly low nose conversions. I wonder why they bothered putting the non-functioning classification lights back on? Looks like they just cut off the bottom of the high hood and welded the rest back on. You can even see where they just painted over the old number boards in the nose-on shot.
 
Ken --
I have question: why when you identified the engine as

"Those would both be EMD SD9 of the GWSR."

did you include the GWSR part. If these locos are sitting in St. Albans, Vermont, how is the GWSR part connected, if it is?

Just trying to learn here.

Thanks!
Clair
 
If you want to get pedantic about it, I believe these are Paducah rebuilds of SD7's and SD9's. Some were called "SD10's" and here's one in MILW(aukee Road) /Soo line paint:

http://www.trainnet.org/Libraries/Lib006/SOO543.JPG

However perhaps due to the lack of paper air filters (the ductwork on the MILW unit behind the cab) perhaps they're just chop-nosed SD7/9's. They definately look like a Paducah rebuild though, note the new angled number boards present on both your photograph and the MILW unit.
 
Clair said:
Ken --
I have question: why when you identified the engine as

"Those would both be EMD SD9 of the GWSR."

did you include the GWSR part. If these locos are sitting in St. Albans, Vermont, how is the GWSR part connected, if it is?

Just trying to learn here.

Thanks!
Clair
Click to expand...
From the link page, I gather that the locos are owned by the GWSR but I suppose leased to the Central Vermont.
 
From 2000-2002 GSWR was owned by RailAmerica (prior to 2000 RailTex, whom RailAmerica bought out), they frequently interchanged units as per power needed, and never take the time to change reporting marks. They may, now that GSWR is no longer owned by RailAmerica, change the reporting marks, since the units are on the NECR which is a RailAmerica railroad, and they're still in RA colors, however, they look to still say GSWR.

http://www.railamerica.com/railmaps.htm
http://www.gswrr.com/
 
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Clair said:
Miles --
I'm looking at your SOO Line engine next to my No. 1 image and I wonder why there are no lights showing on mine between the number boards. Are lights not something salient to engine identification?

http://www.clairdunn.com/RR-Images/

http://www.trainnet.org/Libraries/Lib006/SOO543.JPG

Madly trying to learn here.

Thanks much.
Clair
Click to expand...


Nope. Lights can reveal which railroad owned the locomotive though. The SP was notorious for adding tons of extra light packages to their locomotives. Here are a few examples:

"Normal" SD40: (TFMexicana) http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/TFM_1422_EMD_SD40-2.jpg


SP SD40: http://espee.railfan.net/nonindex/sd40_photos/8434_sp-sd40-gene_mckinley.jpg

Notice that the SP unit not only has another set of headlights on the nose, but it also has the Mars light.

http://www.trainweb.org/gyra/mars.htm

Another example is here: A typical EMD GP9: (Unusal Bell placement though) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:DGVR40_Staunton_WJGrimes.JPG

SP GP9 with Pyle Gyralight and Mars light. http://www.rapidtransit-press.com/sp3190.jpg
 
I don't think the GWSR SD-9's are Paducah rebuilds. The Paducah rebuilds can be easily identified by the oxbow air filers added to the roof and the professionally built short noses with typical beveled EMD noses. These things obviously just had the long noses removed, were cut to size, and welded back on. You can tell from the painted over number boards where the top of the long hood used to be. Even in their worst days, Paducah wouldn't have done this sloppy a job.
 
morning all --
I just spent 2 hours yesterday crawling around the St. Albans yard with my camera. (neither of the two engines in my No. 1 image were there).

I came home with a lot of yard documentation and two BURNING questions.

1. Where do I find out what ALL the numbers and letters mean on engines and cars. (see post #11 above -- I still don't have an answer as to how GWSR fits into the ID of the loco.)

2. Which end of a loco is the "front" -- I know they run both ways, but from a documentary viewpoint, which is the accepted forward part of a locomotive? This is prompted by my reading in Armostrong, e.g., "if it is running long hood forward . . . ." or something like that. Since I'm a photography by trade, I want to know which is the "standard" display of an engine -- if there is one.

AND as a final puzzle I'm stuck with which just developed this morning: I love the RRpicturearchives site but was stumped by this paragraph under the section "Frame/Serial Xref"

"Every locomotive has a unique serial number that can be used to identify it as it changes ownership or number. Our goal is to obtain the serial number for each locomotive on the site. This page shows locomotives that have changed numbers or ownership."

I looked a number of the images, e.g., "Pictures with EMD Serial No 82384 in them" and none of the pictures had anything like 82384 visible on them. So where is this number and how did picture takers of images where the engine was far away, know what the SN was???

Thanks!

Clair
 
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GSWR: Georgia Southwestern Railroad, the letters are reporting marks, each railroad has at least one, if not more. You can always search google for "AAR Reporting marks" to find out what railroad or company owns what.

The front would be the end marked with an F on the frame. If it has no F, it usually defaults to the end with the shorter hood. However, some units have been known to be dual ended, meaning they usually have two control stands.

I wouldn't worry about which end is the front, if you're shooting them. The issue becomes running them over longer distances, to which end should face forwards.

The frame number is displayed on a small plate. Its similar to a car's VIN, if you took a picture of your car, it would not show the VIN, but the VIN would still match that car. People out there track the frame numbers so that you can track what railroads owned the unit beforehand. It also allows you to track it though rebuilds, such as when RailPower builds a GG20, the frame number stays the same, though the serial number would change.
 
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