Are there any instances of a yard switcher being used as a passenger locomotive?I’m thinking of main or branch line service not a heritage line.
The Reading tried an NW2 as a passenger engine, but it lacked the hp to accelerate fast enough to maintain a schedule.
Baldwin made the RS12, a S12 switcher with a short hood for a steam generator. that was used on many branchline applications. They ended their days switching the coach yards in Amtrak facilities. An RS12 model is made by Stewart.
It also depends on how you define a “yard switcher” since RS1,2,3 GP7, 9, H24-66’s have all been bought/used as yard engines and all have been used in passenger service.
Dave H.
A true yard switcher probably only in an emergency situation. Switchers tended to have lower gearing and passenger engine required higher gearing for higher top speeds to maintain schedules. I doubt a true switcher could have run much faster than 30 MPH or so in commuter or passenger service.
The Maryland and Pennsylvania railroad used a EMD switcher as passenger power. There was no need for a steam boiler and the speeds were less than 25 mph anyhow.
They did keep a doodlebug and one steam engine on hand in case the Switcher needed shop work. This arrangement lasted well into the 50’s
The gearing was normally the same as on a regular freight engine and most diesel switchers I have seen have top speeds in the 50 mph range. The challenge is acceleration. A GP7 has 375 hp/axle. An E8 has 500 hp/axle. A typical 1000 hp switcher has only 250 hp/axle. It can get the train up to 50 mph, but in a commuter territory not before it reaches the next station.
Dave H.
On page 16 of Donald V. Jewell’s 1974-1976 Southern Pacific Motive Power Annual there is a photo of SP SW900 4633 pulling combine 3302 through Longvale, California, as SP subsidiary Northwestern Pacific train 3, the Redwood, on August 2 1964. The run was usually covered by SP Budd RDC 10, but it was out of service for repairs following a grade crossing accident, hence the substitute equipment.
I -THINK- I’m not sure but I THINK LIRR used MP15s or SW 15s or whatever as power on commuters. But I am not sure.
Yes, indeed, they have MP15AC’s that are occasionally used on commuter trains…some are even wired to provide head-end power.
EMD built some NW-5 Switchers that were sort of a predessor of the GP-7 and BL-1. It also competed with the Alco RS-1.
These switchers were equiped with steam generators and Blomberg Road Trucks. I believe that EMD made 13 of these. 10 to the Great Northers, 2 to the Detroit Union Terminal, and 1 to the Southern.
Rick
I guess it depends on how you interpret the question. Yes there are always exceptions. even the PRR used a k4 in freight service occasionally but as a rule of thumb regarding a dedicated yard switcher I still stand by my statement it would be used only in an emergency situation.
LIRR regularly assigned MP15AC’s to suburban trains on the Oyster Bay branch. HEP was supplied by the power/cab car on the other end.
The only examples I have known first-hand are on tourist railroads, as in the “sawmill line” in eastern Victoria Island (steam-powered sawmill there) and at Sacramento, California along the Sacramento River. If you include geared locomotives, there are lots more in “my neighborhood.” Get real: how about 4-4-0, 2-6-0, 2-8-0, and 2-6-2 if you’re looking for “lower-end” steam locomotives? Forget diesel-electric switchers as passenger locomotives, at least before SD-7s with boilers (as used on the Northwestern Pacifiic), and similarly-equipped SD-9s and GP-7/9s elsewhere, or maybe some Baldwin AS-616s in mixed passenger/freight service, and little else later on.
Mark
Well we get into a problem of “what is a switcher??”. The NW-5 and RS-1 (and you might argue, the MP-15) were road switchers not switch engines. “RS = Road Switcher”. The RS-1 began production in 1941 and I think from the outset could be ordered with a steam generator for passenger service. The NW-5 was basically an early road switcher - an NW-2 type switcher with an additional section behind the cab for the steam generator.
Classic Trains had something a few issues back on a I think an 0-6-0 being used on an emergency passenger run, because it had the connections for passenger car steam heat (it was used to switch passenger cars in a terminal) and was the only engine available due to a blizzard. But such uses of a steam or diesel switcher (not road switcher) on passenger trains would be very very rare and isolated incidents.
As referenced above the Maryland and Pennsylvania used their NW2 (and possible their SW9) for passenger duty. According to Hilton’s book, this was done on Saturdays when they weren’t being used for freights. This was done to save money as it was cheaper to use the diesels than the gas electrics. During the week they used their gas electrics (they had 2). The NW2 was a standard EMD switcher, but was used as a road engine on the Ma&Pa. Prior to Oct 1951 there were two round trip passenger cars a day, and when one of the gas electrics was unavailable during the week they used steam, a 4-4-0 or a 4-6-0.
Interestingly, the gas electric pulled a mail/baggage car, but the diesel had to pull both the mail/baggage and a coach.
Enjoy
Paul
Hello Paul,
Thank you for your reply to my question on using switchers on passenger trains.You bought up another favourite subject of mine,doodlebugs.I kitbashed a couple from the Roundhouse Harriman coach.For M1 I used a combine and cut off the end bulkheads to above the floor and used the inside bulkheads as the cabfront and opened up a window in the side for the engineerand use 1/2 mm evergreen clapboard as radiator shutter on t.I hope you liked my idesahe front ,then cut the roof above the motor area and fiited it with a flat roof with plastic tube for the stacks and details associates captop fans on square tube section and a hole was cut in the floor for a SPUD and a very large heavy steel weight was added to slow the SPUD,it sounds complicated but it worked.I also made a combine/caboose from another Harriman by cutting a section of roof to accommodate an Athearn wide vision cupola near the baggage doors again an interesting looking coach which goes well with a mixed train .I hope you liked my ideas.
Regards,Malcolm.
There are many examples of switchers being used for branchline passenger service. Some examples are the Wabash which used a lima switcher on it’s Columbia (missouri) branch line and the Pennsy used baldwin switchers on some of it’s commuter branch lines. Also, page 22 of this months Model Railroader shows a Frisco baldwin switcher pulling a mixed train.
Dale.
Well NP used Baldwin road switchers on some branchlines (RS-12’s maybe?) as did some other roads, but road switchers aren’t switchers. Does the pic on pg 22 say what model engine it is??
It’s a VO-1000
This may be a little late, but I’ve seen pictures of a SW-type locomotive pulling an ‘employee train’ with just one heavyweight coach. Also, factory tours. The factory tours are neat trains to model, a couple of gondolas filled with people standing and holding cameras, binoculars, children, notepads and anything else you could reason and maybe and old coach or business car for the VIP’s. The employee trains would be more regular (we don’t want our employees to be late!) but maybe more appropriate for mining or rural areas.
Interesting notion that,here in the UK some of our heritage railways use 4 and 6 wheel shunters (switchers) steam and diesel doing brake van (like a 4 wheel bobber) runs but under our health and safety laws riding in a gondola type wagon is forbidden.
Malcolm.