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And all along I always thought these were called toasters:
AEM-7 911-901 Amtrak by Edmund, on Flickr
Cheers, Ed
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They probably are too! The shape and all that electric stuff up top haha
Loved those Amtrak, NJT and SEPTA toasters!! I have a couple of each in Amtrak & NJT. Guess I need to break them out and get them back on the layout…
That’s a Dash 9. Technically only Dash 8s are considered Techno-toasters.
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Looks flame broiled
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Lots of them dash-9’s,ac4400’s,and even gevo’s burning up the car bodies. I love modeling them,gives them some character.
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The New Haven EP-5, later PC E-40, was the original honorary toaster. High power, restricted loading gage, and lack of critical cooling resulted in a surprising number of significant onboard fires.
The (dis)honorable mention goes to many of the trains on the New Haven that had third=rail shoes to allow last-mile Kaufman-Act-compliant travel into GCT. I cannot think offhand of anything with them that did not catch fire at least once, except the TurboTrain.
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The dash 8 through current models of GE locomotives are called toasters as the dynamic brake grides are literally the size of toaster slots behind the cab.
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Techno-toaster was applied to the Dash 8 due to the new electronics and the problems therein. I do not recall if it also applied to Super7s. That does not apply to Dash 9s and newer which do not have the same electronics.
I found a blog post implying that the toaster name was due to the failing turbos belching flame, but I’ve never heard that before.In fact the Dash 8s were called toaster for years before the string of turbo failures started happening on the Dash9s/AC4400s. I’ve also heard it applied to the P40 and AEM7 first, because they look like toasters, but I didn’t hear that until recently.
I’ve never heard it suggested that it had to do with the dynamic brake grids before.
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Yes, that’s what I think of as toasters. But it’s a more benign nickname, given simply because of their appearance.
Eric
OK, I’ll admit my ignorance. What is a toaster?
Regards, Chris
I am definitely not an authority on this, but I first read the name years ago applied to the electric locomotives, presumably for their appearance: boxy with flat stainless sides that resembled toasters.
Years later I saw it applied to GE locomotives because (I think) of the frequent fires.
A Kitchen appliance that turns bread into toast.
Paul, the Toaster name for GEs for sure predates the turbo fires. The turbo fire issue was from the past 20ish years. The nickname goes back to the late 80s.
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That shot of the 903 was taken after the wreck at Chase in 1987. IIRC, the NTSB said the speed at impact was 107mph.
The AEM-7s were nicknamed “toasters,” and sometimes also “meatballs.”
Having run the AEM-7’s for 30 years, they were often called “meatballs” by crew members, but I don’t recall EVER hearing as one being referred to as “a toaster” …
Why were they called “meatballs”?
“Swedish meatballs”
They were based on a Swedish electric loco. Not sure it their small size (only around 50 feet long if I remember correctly) influenced the name.
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Toaster was more of a 60 Mass term than an Ivy City term…
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Thanks, AEP528. Never would have occurred to me.
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