Pan Am's Heritage Locomotives

Braved the elements to witness my Christmas wish being fulfilled this morning. No movement, but ST/MEC 52 was idling away with an SLR spacer and a cut of 24 mixed tanks (oil and petroleum) ready to head south.

Seems like the 77 has become the daily pumper for WAPO once the train is built... taken last night.

Awesome photo, thanks!

^Beautiful! Thanks

number boards are overrated...

Sorry buts whats a 'pumper'?

690 wrote:Seems like the 77 has become the daily pumper for WAPO once the train is built... taken last night.

Yet another reason to add to the list of why Pan Am will keep these units running forever.

tj48 wrote:Sorry buts whats a 'pumper'?

A pumper is a unit you put on an assembled train to keep the brake line charged or "pumped up," hence the name. Allows you to brake test and such before hand, saving time for the road crew which does a quick power swap and hauls out. Other places have stationary air compressors that do the same thing, compressor house and an air line out to where you commonly stage trains. Then a few feet of air hose and you can keep the system charged up with no locomotive. Common around interchanges or places where you use "shore power" to keep things warm and want to keep the air line charged too. Rotterdam Jct is a good example on the PAR system...

gokeefe wrote:Yet another reason to add to the list of why Pan Am will keep these units running forever.

They could pump with anything, so its not really a life prolonging assignment, but I'm not complaining.

NHV 669 wrote:number boards are overrated...

Unfortunately I don't have the money to spend on external flashes at this time, so 20" exposures with the numberboards overexposed are the best I can do right now.

KSmitty wrote:

tj48 wrote:Sorry buts whats a 'pumper'?

A pumper is a unit you put on an assembled train to keep the brake line charged or "pumped up," hence the name. Allows you to brake test and such before hand, saving time for the road crew which does a quick power swap and hauls out. Other places have stationary air compressors that do the same thing, compressor house and an air line out to where you commonly stage trains. Then a few feet of air hose and you can keep the system charged up with no locomotive. Common around interchanges or places where you use "shore power" to keep things warm and want to keep the air line charged too. Rotterdam Jct is a good example on the PAR system...

gokeefe wrote:Yet another reason to add to the list of why Pan Am will keep these units running forever.

They could pump with anything, so its not really a life prolonging assignment, but I'm not complaining.

Yard air hasn't been used at Rotterdam in ages. CSX does their own Class I test and the inbound trains are broken up so many times it would void the break slip.

Geez, it'd look really nice more than a bit to the west -- Yard 1 Extension, for instance.

KSmitty wrote:

tj48 wrote:Sorry buts whats a 'pumper'?

A pumper is a unit you put on an assembled train to keep the brake line charged or "pumped up," hence the name. Allows you to brake test and such before hand, saving time for the road crew which does a quick power swap and hauls out. Other places have stationary air compressors that do the same thing, compressor house and an air line out to where you commonly stage trains. Then a few feet of air hose and you can keep the system charged up with no locomotive. Common around interchanges or places where you use "shore power" to keep things warm and want to keep the air line charged too. Rotterdam Jct is a good example on the PAR system...

gokeefe wrote:Yet another reason to add to the list of why Pan Am will keep these units running forever.

They could pump with anything, so its not really a life prolonging assignment, but I'm not complaining.

Thanks!! Learned something new.

Photo by Brandon Kulik:

http://photos.greatrails.net/s/?p=228654" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Where is 52 now?

Still at Groveton.