I am planning on using some dummy engines as new engines in transit to their new owners and having them in the consist during transit. I know they used canvas covers over all the stacks and intakes to keep dirt out, did they cover the windows like they do with the white protective paper used on new cars? I have several F units and a couple of Geeps that I am planning on using as new engines being delivered to their new owners. Roads didn’t " hijack " the new units to add extra power on their trains while transporting the engines to their home road. I never saw any pictures or heard of it, but one never knows if this was a possible situation.
Roads didn’t hijack the new units, but sometimes arrangements were made to use them as working locomotives. If they are hauled dead the purchasing railroad has to pay the freight charges between the factory and home rails. If they work their way across that is no longer an issue, although the locomotive is not quite as “new” by the time delivery is completed.
I can’t say for sure, but in general there would be no need to cover the stacks, intakes and windows. Some of that happens when a locomotive is stored for an extended period. New locomotives being moved dead probably have no more than a week between the final test run at the plant and start up by the new owner.
Just make sure the “new locomotive” model is very shiny - no weathering at all. You should be able to smell the paint.
As said before, railroads work out arrangements to allow the units to be used as working power in lieu of paying freight charges. The real railroads didn’t mind the other road using the power because the trip to the home road was a “break in run”.
Cocooning the locomotives was only done if they were for export and were going to be exposed to saltwater. The wrapping locomotives is a modern thing and not something done in the 1940’s or 1950’s (the plastics to do it weren’t even invented yet).
So unless you are modeling a unit so new or unusual that the transporting road crews won’t be qualified to operate it (a turbine or the diesels in the 1930’s) it would be working, just new and shiny. If you are doing GP’s then I would say the transporting road crews would be qualified to operate the engines.
Slightly off topic, but something I remember reading that was interesting was that railroads pay/paid tax (like sales tax) based on where the railroad officially “took delivery” of the engine. So if a railroad headquartered in Chicago wanted to buy a new GM diesel, they might choose to not take delivery of the engine directly from EMD/GM (which was only a few miles away in LaGrange IL) but instead have the engine shipped to say Montana or Wyoming or some other state the railroad served that had low (or no) sales tax to save money.
A couple of years ago I saw three or four new engines completely covered in tarps eastbound on Norfolk Southern’s mainline here in Pittsburgh. I’ve always wondered where they were coming from and where they were going.
Not just diesels either. When Amtrak’s AEM-7s were being delivered from EMD to Amtrak’s Wilmington Shops they travelled dead in tow right behind the road power of regular Conrail Freight trains. They didn’t have any protective coverings at all. Was that really 30 years ago?
All the units I am using have “fresh” paint. I just finished repainting them and lettering them as well so they are “factory fresh” lol. I have several well used and abused F units and Geeps that I am using as dead units on trade-in for new ones and they are dummies as well and I have them in the middle of some of my consist. They sport the B&M and Southern as trade-ins that pass through my division on their way to EMD. I also have one 2-6-0 that has the side rods removed and it’s being transported to a shortline somewhere in the south so it runs in a consist as well. I figured you don’t see alot of people running or adding motive power as part of the load in most of their trains on layouts and since that engine has to get from the manufacturer to it’s customer somehow it’s going to travel across someone’s rails to get there. Just one of those little details I think of and model as a conversation piece and something different to see on the layout. At my train shop I have on my layout I have 2 tracks of dead engines waiting to either be repaired or scrapped or traded for new equipment. This engine shop is a collection point for my home roads odds and ends in this region. So when I find a dead engine or have one of mine that gave up the ghost I gut the motors and it becomes a new aquistion to the dead track.
It really depends what the buyer wants. Back in the 60’s, EMD would ship new engines to the UP without cab seats or the red lettering/stripes. UP applied that stuff at Omaha, but they did ‘work’ in consist across Iowa on the CB&Q many times.
The state of Illinois charged sales tax if the engine was delivered in that state. The Milw and C&NW ‘delivered’ each others engines in Milwaukee, WI to avoid the sales tax. The CGW had their SD40’s delivered by the C&NW to St Paul, MN. The engines then were moved to Oelwein, IA for setup.
I remember working on a CB&Q train that had new GN F45’s in it, They were dead in tow, with idler flat cars between each unit. I also saw an order of wide vision cabooses for the NP being delivered in the middle of a train.
I’ve seen a couple of instances of what appeared to be new GE Ferromex locomotives in the consist of Union Pacific trains through SE Arizona, possibly on their way to Mexico, and they were being used as part of the road power consist.
When I think of new engines in transit is the Prosperity Special. Fifty 2-10-2 Santa Fe type locos left Baldwin locomotive works in one train hauled dead in tow to Los Angeles to the SP. Imagine seeing a train like that going past you.
Me too. But the SP didn’t call them Santa Fe types. SP and ATSF were arch rivals. SP classified them as “Freight” class/type and were commonly known as “Decks” as from “Decapod.”
Decks to me are the almost 600 I1s locos of the originating railroad of the mentioned train. Baldwin built most of them and they were true Decapods. 2-10-0. From what little of the Prosperity special I have read more than half of the locos had to be dropped due to mechanical problems. They ended up with only 22 at the end.
Newly manufactured diesel locomotive being delivered from US manufacturer to Mexican railways. Locomotive is not pulling a train but being moved as part of the cargo. Mexican Railway Joint Yard, . (1970s?)