Does anyone have any info on the E8B units that Rock Island converted into cab units by putting windows and controls into one end and what type of trains it worked with,any photos would be helpful.Thank you.
Malcolm.
Are you talking about the converted B units that ran on the Colorado Springs leg of the Rocky Mountain Rocket??
go to google.com and put ‘crandall cab’ in the search box…lots of info there
Hi alfadawg,
It’s close but this is a C&NW unit I’m looking for the Rock island conversion though I have been thinking about this one for some time.Thanks for the info.
Malcolm.
The two locomotives were factory built with the cab on a modified B unit design. They were not converted from existing B units. Designated AB6, they were used on the Rocky Mountain Rocket. Between Chicago and Limon, Colorado they were used as B units. From Limon they were the A unit on the Colorado Springs section of the train.
Originally built, they only had one engine block. The space where the second block went on normal B units was used for baggage. With only one engine it turned out to be underpowered. The idea of having baggage carried on the engine was abandoned and the space was used to add second engine.
After the Rocky Mountain Rocket was discontinued, they ended up in Chicago commuter service.
Jeff
Hello Stix,
I dont know that area so it could be the one I did see a photo of the unit which had front windows either side of the diaphragm and a lagre headlight above it and it seemed that the side windows came from an F unit,also there are side baggage doors which makes me think that an engine may have been removed to make space for a baggage section and with only one engine it’s power output will have been reduced,is this right?
Malcolm.
Bruce Chubb’s “How to Operate your Model Railroad” has a picture series of the combining of the trains at Limon on pages 53 and 54. I don’t think it is in print, but I saw it used on Amazon. It isn’t cheap, but it is a good book. A lot more detailed and technical than a lot of the current stuff. There are several shots of that B unit, though they are not real big.
Based on the Rock Island Technical Society website, it looks like there were two of them, 750 and 751. Here are a couple pics:
http://classictrains.deviantart.com/art/E-unit-oddity-49548557
http://classictrains.deviantart.com/art/Only-on-the-Rock-54945988
Hello Jeff,
Just what I was looking for those are very good pics,thank you ,now I heard that the Rock also put a baggage section in a streamline observation car do you know about this please?
Malcolm.
That I don’t know anything about. I have Chubb’s book, so I knew about the EAB6, and I’ve visited the RITS site before looking for info. Google found the pics. You might try the RITS site, http://faculty.simpson.edu/RITS/www/ or maybe the fallen flags section at http://www.trainboard.com to see if someone there might know the answer.
Just for info, the Crandall Cab is not at all like the EAB6 of the Rock. Different animal altogether.
I also see them called E6AB s. Which is correct is probably lost in history.
Hello Jeff,
Thanks for the latest photos,the seond pic a side on view makes it look like a gas electric epecially with the doors in the side.
Malcolm.
Quite right, Malcolm, my mistake. I was thinking E8’s so that’s what confused me. My apologies.
Thats ok mate,it’s interesting though,I take it there’s a story behind it?
Malcolm.
I believe a pic of that car is in the Morning Sun “Color Guide to Rock Island Freight and Passenger Cars”. I think it was an older streamlined observation car from the thirties-forties that they added a baggage section to, for use on branch lines. I guess that isn’t that odd, one of the cars used by the “Friends of 261” is a baggage car that the Milwaukee made from a beavertail observation car originally built in the mid-thirties.
I have the Chubb book too - I couldn’t remember which book it was in. Kalmbach/MR has re-used those pics in a couple of other more recent books…I think the one on junctions??
BTW I do think it was an E6B not an E8B…not sure if CRIP had E8B’s?? I know they often ran E8A’s with E7B’s on the Twin Star Rocket.
The correct designation is AB-6. This is off a CRI&P drawing reproduced in a data sheet by the Rock Island Technical Society.
Jeff
Greetings,
Jeffhergert is on the money with his descriptions. Somewhere awhile back one of the Rock Island Technical Society’s newsletters showed how to convert an E6B unit into the AB6. You may want to contact them. You might be able to google it. I used to have the article but I don’t know what became of it.
Hope this helps,
Bob
Try this, I remembered it under my layout!
Hello Bob,
Thanks for your reply,I also do a lot of researching as I have a few modelling interests such a early 1900s German railways (I have a couple of the Roco Glaskasten locos and coaches to make a branch line terminus or a mid western station served by a geep and a couple of coaches or an RDC just passing through or early 30s with Bachmanns Rock island doodlebug on its way to Erehwon,or erehwemos so this may get built.
Malcolm.