Front End Friday


my latest buy. Tower55 H0 Scale

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Scratch built E33, way before Bachmann thought of producing the model. My favorite American electric locomotive in my favorite paint scheme for them. Back in 1956-57 the Virginian ordered 12 of these from General Electric to replace ancient side rod powered "Square Heads", which have been working on that railroad since 1920s. These were AC/DC machines; using 11KV 25Hz single phase catenary to power DC motors via ignitron rectifiers to convert AC current to DC for the axle hung motors. The locomotives developed 3300hp with starting tractive effort of 98,500lbs and weight of 174 tons. Classed EL-C by the Virginian they worked untill Virginian was swallowed up by Norfolk and Western at the end of 1959. One unit was actually repainted in NW scheme before it was decided to end electric operations in the summer of 1962. After brief testing on Pennsy, 11 units were bought by the New Haven (one unit was supposedly converted into a slug with mixed results). Unlike New Havens EP5 passenger electrics, which liked to catch fire, the EL-Cs, classed as EF4 by the New Haven were very successful and even with minimal maintenance very reliable. 10 units with the eleventh set for parts worked on New Haven untill 1969, when Penn Central took over operations. Penn Central (the fourth owner), quickly shipped them south to Wilmington electric shops in Delaware. There they received full Penn Central paint scheme and some minor modifications (mainly the removal of roof mounted high voltage buss to electrically connect two or more units). Now working on former Pennsy lines they were classed as E33 and worked along side of its more modern E44 brothers. In 1976 creation of Conrail all existing 10 units were still employed by the new giant, their fifth owner. Unfortunatelly do to politics Conrail took more and more freight off the electrified lines. The E33s were in storage by summer 1980, with Conrail shutting down the electric operations by spring of 1981. Two of the units were preserved, one is at the railroad museum in Roanoke, VA. That unit was repainted into its first scheme; Virginian, and it's in much better shape than the other one. The other unit still in its fading and chipping Conrail scheme (number 4601), was recently aquired by the museum in Rockford, IL. Prevoiusly it was sitting for several decades on a siding near Old Saybrook, CT. If one is to look closely at the one in Rockford, he will see the Penn Central black bleeding through Conrail red since the unit was not sand blasted before repainting. Even more interesting is the visible New Haven vermilion red with white stripes bleeding from under chipping Penn Central black, as PC also did not sand blast the units before repainting. No actual word on what paint scheme is planned for number 4601 yet, but rumors and well wishing abound. Since no New Haven electric locomotives were saved from scrapping, it would make sense to repaint that unit in a very nice vermilion scheme of that railroad. Personally i would preffer brand new Conrail "dress blues", but only time will tell.
 
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