Y 101 (csx local) was working in defiance today. he had engine 6089.above the numbers on the cab someone gave it a special designation as junk power.yea the engine could use some paint but the gp40-2 switched the cars out fine.
stay safe
Joe
Go sit in a “spartan” cab locomotive for 12 hours, and you will understand why its called junk power. They are loud, rough, dirty, and just plain obnoxious anymore. I’m sure in the 70’s and 80’s they were pride of the fleet. However, today they are just junk. Plus most older locomotives you just don’t know what you are getting. The paperwork may say 3000 hp, but you may or may not get it. I have noticed lately that sd40-2’s seem to have some real issues with dynamic brakes.
Railroaders (self included) LOVE to complain about power. I’m sure that back in the day after the Pacifics (4-6-2) came out on the property the Atlantic types (4-4-2) that preceded them were “junk power” or some similar epithet.
The simple truth is that the widebodies are newer, better designed machines as built both for crew comfort (nicer seats, A/C, soundproofing) and newer better technology, including extended range dynamics that on the newest locomotives can pretty much stop the train, so by comparison to the standard cab (GP38-2s and up and SD40-2 and up) they look pretty good. Standard cab power has some significant advantages over the widebodies especially in switching applications. Standard cabs don’t have desktop controls that make reverse moves a real pain, they also have brake systems that allow fanning the independent for predictable and smooth braking instead of the whiplash brought on by the computerized brake systems on the newer units. Suffice it to say that when the Class 1s get tired of their standard cabs there will still be plenty of Class 2 and 3 roads lined up to bid.
LC
i think that GP15-1 are junk power on some cr/csx trains. that’s just me
can I ask why?
i know that cr had problems with GP15-1’s blowing crankcases on a long hauls and other problems.
On the other hand, our RS-3 is a “classic.” Even if it makes a “spartan cab” look luxurious…
I can remember when the so-called “Spartan Cab” was considered to be the absolute best there was. Although it could (and in some cases did) get an upgrade in such things as seating comfort, the control stand has never been improved on in any substancial way. As mentioned above, reverse movements are downright painful (literally) and operating one of these wide cab monsters in reverse for very long will guarentee you a trip to the back surgeon.
I understand that some wide cabs are now getting the “old standard” AAR control stand instead of the “desktop”. YES!
Shades of F7’s! Try to see out of one of them while backing up. If we had an extra man and had to do some switching with a Covered Wagon, we would try to send this fellow out to stand in front of the train and relay the signals back to the engineer so that he didn’t have to imitate a pretzel.
There was a picture in Trains some years ago of a four unit (ABBA) F set doing some local switching… It was ATSF, IIRC. Ouch.
That was one of the reasons that Santa Fe converted over 200 F7A’s into CF7’s.
No problem switching with F-7’s, just get your homemade $.98 rear view mirror out of your grip.
Maybe when it received it’s special designation it wasn’t working fine.
I used to think that SP stood for something other than Southern Pacific, and we’re talking about wide nosed GEs. For a while it seemed if one was in the consist, chances were good for having power problems.
Jeff
Or you could just use your rearview mirror…
the maumee and western in defiance has a cf-7 #5.#4(formally 345) got shipped on the 508 to toledo.could be anywhere now.
stay safe
joe