help to indentify an old diesel

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

While traveling by train, years ago I saw a strange big locomotive. I’ve checked the database of the local rail company, and it isn’t catalogued there.

Here is the description:

It looked like one of those engines that don’t have a regular nose with windshield above it, but rather have the hood on both sides of the cabine, only one side is shorter,so you can’t see straight because there are no windows exept on the side.
Anyway what made it stand out was a bellows that seemed to connect it with another unit, I forgot if there was another cab on the other unit, or was it a slug.
but either way there were two hoods connected with a bellows, at least one them had a cockpit.

Now, is this one locomotive, or is it some old trick of connecting two and putting a bellows in between?

2

it sounds like a dummy to me, or it could be a slug to add traction to another unit.

3

and what are dummies?

4

a dummy unit is an engine thats guts have been ripped out. It is put on the back of an engine to give it some traction.

5

It may have been a cabless B unit. Or a calf to go with a cow unit. In either case, the unit was built without a cab & has no hostler controls. It can only be moved bu MU’in it to a cab unit. Some RR’s bought them new in order to save some money & not build a cab. Others are wreck rebuilds. BN used to have quite a few of them, both from GE or EMD.

THe only way to tell would be if it still had the exhaust stacks, radiator & other parts from a regular unit. You would find the prime mover inside. A slug would only have the traction motors. Another possibility is that it was a fuel tender, designed to pump diesel into the lead unit.

6

Before we move on with the discussion, did you guys rule outthe possibility of a two-piece locomotive? There are no such things then?

Anyway. Did you actually personally see any slugs or dummies that are integrated into the main locomotive by means of a bellows unit?

Here is how the whole thing looked like, like this bus:

http://www.gortite.com/images/busbellows/bus.jpg

well, only it was not a bus, but a locomotive

7

i have never seen or heard of something that a locomotive would have like that. It must have been built by the railroads shops. I know that most of the slugs were only coupled to the loco, not actually intergated with the mother unit. This would be something interesting to see in a photo. Maybe i can find something out about something like this

8

I wish I had a camera with me, the thing was very big.
I think it was like 10 years ago now that I think about it, wow, the time does fly.
I can’t even remember which town was it, I’ve seen it parked, from the window of the train while I was traveling and passing though a station.

the main unit was based on a model like this:

http://www.lolkebijlsma.com/jz644023_bled_19840703_lhb.jpg

exept that it was connected with another unit with a bellows

9

Maybe it was a GP9 or another early diesel. The first hood units came with a high short hood.Southern and Norfolk and Western kept high hoods until fairly recently.Can’t help you on the bellows thing,though[:(].
And by the way,[#welcome]to the forum[:)]!

10

The one on the picture is not GP9, it was manufactured by Macosa on EMD licence. The model on the picture is called G22U

11

it must have looked like a FM trainmaster then as the lead unit, oh sorry [#welcome] to the forum

12

thanks for the welcome [:)]

and yea, FM trainmaster is a very close match (6 wheel trucks and all) for the main unit part

13

so i think it is a good chance that the unit was custom made in the shops. That is the only way i could see a unit like that made.

14

that would mean it is unique, which is even more of a reason to have picture of it, too bad

15

it would be soooo cool to see. did it have a roadname on the side. if so do a google on it.

16

That is a slug, or tractive effort booster unit. I have never heard of real (not model) locomotive called a dummy.

17

Several designs from the Soviet Union are articulated and can still be found in Eastern Europe. It may have influenced the carbody work on the rebuild.

A G22U is a fairly standardized GM export design, found in a lot of places.

18

It would help to know where you saw this thing since your description is lacking in many aspects. Also the color. It could have been the UP turbine being moved to the Illinois railroad museum about that time. by the way the “bellows” is called a diaphragm.

19

I am from Croatia, this is where I saw it, so It wouldn’t help you much if I toled you where I saw it.

CSSHEGEWISCH
Anyway, it’s definitivley not a soviet locomotive, since in those days (60’s-80’s) we didn’t have that much contact with the soviets (yugoslavia was not a part of eastern block) Most locomotives were made here in Croatia on GM licence, or they were imported from the west. But the rebuilt could have been influenced as you say

20

Woah Croatia, well nevermind on what I was thinkin… hahaha

Welcome to the forums.

Adrianspeeder