Subject:
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Re: Help from the train experts ...
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Tue, 9 Jan 2001 02:54:05 GMT
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Viewed:
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515 times
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In lugnet.trains, Mike Walsh writes:
> In my wanderings in search of suitable pictures, I found this:
>
> HTTP://ARCHIVE.TRAINPIX.COM/ATSF/EMDORIG/GP60B/331.HTM
>
> What do you call this? It is a locomotive that doesn't have a cab. For
> some reason the term "slug" comes to my memory but I don't know if it is
> correct.
Just confirming what everyone else is saying, it's a "B" unit. These are
less and less common these days as the savings you get on initial purchase
from not buying a cab isn't as much as it used to be and the operating
flexibility you lose is more than it used to be.
Back in the days when 4 unit sets of hood units were required to get 5000
HP, it made sense to leave them permanently coupled, often as A-B-B-A (with
the two A cabs facing outward). The B units in those days would have
"hostler" controls, basically a small throttle/independent (that is, NOT
train) brake stand near the end center door or under a small window in the
body end to allow a hostler to move a unit around the engine facility
without having to MU with a cab.
I dunno if this GP60B has hostler controls or not, it's hard to tell.
Now that you can get 5000 HP or more from one unit, you want to just be able
to peel off the front unit from a lashup and still have a viable string.
Slugs, (traction motors and a weighted frame, which as Sheree points out,
this specimen is not) are still a good idea for hump duty but not for much
else any more.
Still, it would make an interesting model. The prototype varies in so many
neat ways.
++Lar
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Help from the train experts ...
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| In my wanderings in search of suitable pictures, I found this: HTTP://ARCHIVE.TRAIN...0B/331.HTM What do you call this? It is a locomotive that doesn't have a cab. For some reason the term "slug" comes to my memory but I don't know if it is correct. (...) (24 years ago, 8-Jan-01, to lugnet.trains)
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