ac6000cw
Established Member
For those of you with any interest in the history of diesel traction, the 'Streamliners at Spencer' event is currently running in the US.
Amongst the 26 (!) classic 'cab unit' style locomotives gathered there is probably the most historic diesel in the world - FT103, one quarter of the original four locomotive EMD demonstrator set that toured the US railroads in 1940.
That nationwide tour convincingly demonstrated that diesels could do anything that steam could (and more) while being cheaper to run and maintain - hence driving most of the nails into the coffin of steam in the US - and turned EMD into the dominant producer of diesels in the US for most of the next 50 years. So 75 year old FT103 is the great-grandfather of the 66's (and much better looking and sounding !) and thousands of other diesels over the years.
There is a picture of FT103 at Spencer on the bottom of the page here - http://cs.trains.com/trn/b/staff/ar...oins-the-cast-of-streamliners-at-spencer.aspx (in what I assume is it's original brown and gold livery).
For reference, EMD 'F' units were Bo-Bo's (mostly used for freight) and 'E' units were A1A-A1A dual-engined passenger locomotives. The original FT demonstrator set comprised four 1350hp FT units MU'd together, two type A with a cab at one end and two cab-less type B, in an A-B-B-A formation to give 5400hp in total.
(If I'd realised a while ago what this event was going to turn into, I might have tried to get to it - bit too late now!
)
Tony
Amongst the 26 (!) classic 'cab unit' style locomotives gathered there is probably the most historic diesel in the world - FT103, one quarter of the original four locomotive EMD demonstrator set that toured the US railroads in 1940.
That nationwide tour convincingly demonstrated that diesels could do anything that steam could (and more) while being cheaper to run and maintain - hence driving most of the nails into the coffin of steam in the US - and turned EMD into the dominant producer of diesels in the US for most of the next 50 years. So 75 year old FT103 is the great-grandfather of the 66's (and much better looking and sounding !) and thousands of other diesels over the years.
There is a picture of FT103 at Spencer on the bottom of the page here - http://cs.trains.com/trn/b/staff/ar...oins-the-cast-of-streamliners-at-spencer.aspx (in what I assume is it's original brown and gold livery).
For reference, EMD 'F' units were Bo-Bo's (mostly used for freight) and 'E' units were A1A-A1A dual-engined passenger locomotives. The original FT demonstrator set comprised four 1350hp FT units MU'd together, two type A with a cab at one end and two cab-less type B, in an A-B-B-A formation to give 5400hp in total.
(If I'd realised a while ago what this event was going to turn into, I might have tried to get to it - bit too late now!
)Tony
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