Has anyone seen this one? I watched it last night for the first time and kinda enjoyed it. It has a passenger train pulled with two F7As lashed together, one going forward and the other going backwards. I know that moves are not very good at trying to model the prototype, but was this a common thing? I thought that when they needed more motive power for the F units, they would use a B unit.
Can someone shed some light on this? Thanks. Mike
Railroads commonly use Multi-Unit (MU) lash-ups to increase tractive power . This can be A-A, A-B, A-B-A, A-B-B, A-B-B-A, etc. For A-A MU’s, they are normally hooked tail to tail. This prevents the loco from having to be turned around to go the other direction.
Hope that made sense.
Rotor
The movie’s exterior shots were done in Canada using Canadian Pacific equipment. IIRC, both units were boiler equipped FP-9’s. Since both units were boiler equipped, there’s no penalty for running two A units back to back. Santa Fe only had boilers in F-3/7 B units (and owned no FP’s), so they had to have at least one B unit when pulling a passenger train.
Andre
The CB&Q was noted for often runnning E and F units “elephant style” nose-to-tail,
http://classictrains.deviantart.com/art/Afternoon-Zephyr-62584905
One of my favorite movies…
Running diesels back to back is very common even today.
It’s one of the features that helped push steam aside, and a great way to make power distribution as flexible and efficient as possible. Even lashups of 3 or more diesels usually have a cab facing each direction at the front and back
Lee
Yes cab units can run back to back…The NTC was famous for running several cab units together or maybe a locomotive consist of F7,GP7,F7,RS11,GP7,F7. or 2 E8A units on a passenger train.
Check this consist
You just saw Silver Streak for the first time last night???[:O]
Are we talking about the one with Gene Wilder or the really old one? I’d like to get a copy of the “original” S S [8D]
“…Damm Hippies…”
Running A units back to back was very common. The MKT did the same thing with their PA’s.
With lash-ups of two locomotives or more with cabs, the de rigueur was to have one on opposite ends pointed in opposite directions. Anything goes for the units between the ends.
A lot of earlier diesels only had MU connections at the rear of the unit (like lots of EMD E and F units), and a lot of early switchers and roadswitchers didn’t have MU. So in the early days one wouldn’t commonly see combinations like A-A-B-B-A. After using an A at each end, one needed additional B units. Early cab units like EMD-units were often sold in A-B-B-A or A-B-A combinations with no front-end MUs on the A units. They were initially given a single locomotive number for the multiple-unit sets so that the unions wouldn’t insist on putting crews on each locomotive. This issue was later resolved with the unions and the railroads gave individual numbers to each locomotive so they could mix-and-match to their heart’s content. Typically, the railroads later added MU connections on all ends of its road locomotives lacking them for greater flexibility for assigning locomotives.
Mark
"… I’m a thief! … "
Yes it was common. All the early FT units that came in 3 or 4 unit lash ups ABA or ABBA. Had the rear A unit facing the opposite direction. That was one of the wonders of them. They didn’t need to be “turned” at the end of the line. I would guess that the 2 unit lash ups were composed of two A units about 50% of the time. Consider that an AB set still had to be “turned” to get the pointy end forward.
There were exceptions such as the Santa Fe ordered ABBB sets when they were having trouble with the union who claimed since there were two cabs they should have two crews. Later after the union got smart the Santa Fe ordered a bunch of single A’s to rework them into more standard and versatile configurations.
Most railroads did not keep them permanently coupled together either. The would add couplers between all the units. Once again to increase the versatility
[(-D]
The original version of Silver Streak featured the Burlington’s Pioneer Zephyr train that is now in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.
the Gene Wilder/Richard Pryor version of Silver Streak came out about the time I was getting back into the hobby as an adult after having been away from it for over a decade. When I became a teenager and discovered girls, trains didn’t seem so cool so it took a while for me to rekindle the interest. Naturally, Silver Streak helped with that effort. I still like to watch it when one of the cable channels shows it. The one thing that seems completely unrealistic to me is when the villain, played by Patrick McGoohan, is killed by a passing train while leaning out of a door during a gunfight with police. I think that clearances on prototype railroads would make this an impossibility.
As an off topic side note, I didn’t realize that Patrick McGoohan also played the villain, Lonkshanks, in Mel Gibson’s Braveheart until 10 years after I first saw the movie. When I first saw the movie, it seemed to me the actor playing Longshanks seemed familiar but I just couldn’t place him. It was only recently that I realized it was the same actor who I had become familiar with in the 1960s in programs such as Secret Agent, The Prisoner, and the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh. He looked so much different in his role as Longshanks.
Probably a stupid question,but did they ever run F3’s with F7’s or F7’s with F9’s???
They have run F3’s with just about everything except Baldwins.
Dave H.
Yes, all the time. Especially in the waining years of the F units in the 60’s.
Yes, all the time. Especially in the waining years of the F units in the 60’s.
Yes, all the time. Especially in the waining years of the F units in the 60’s.