by Allen Hazen
A while back I got a bee in my bonnet about two New York Central U30B: the 2858 and 2859, which were fitted with U33B-style radiators ("wingspan") as a test before U33 production began. In particular, I wanted to know what the fronts of their radiator compartments looked like, and couldn't find ANY good photos on the WWWeb.
Well, there IS a photo of one of these units in Alvin Stauffer's "New York Central - Later Power," and for those without the book, there are NOW good photos, including detail shots of the radiator area, on George Elwood's invaluable "Fallen Flags" railphoto (and locomotive operator's manual) site: go to the Penn Central section of the site and look up 2858: photos taken by William Brandon in 1976 and recently added to Elwood's site.
The radiator compartment is "streamlined," with the front faired into the long hood roof. This is the configuration otherwise seen in GE's test-demo units 301-304 (and shown in GE's published diagrams for years after), and strikingly different from the flat-plate front to the radiator on production U33.
"Fallen Flags" site:
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/
Well, there IS a photo of one of these units in Alvin Stauffer's "New York Central - Later Power," and for those without the book, there are NOW good photos, including detail shots of the radiator area, on George Elwood's invaluable "Fallen Flags" railphoto (and locomotive operator's manual) site: go to the Penn Central section of the site and look up 2858: photos taken by William Brandon in 1976 and recently added to Elwood's site.
The radiator compartment is "streamlined," with the front faired into the long hood roof. This is the configuration otherwise seen in GE's test-demo units 301-304 (and shown in GE's published diagrams for years after), and strikingly different from the flat-plate front to the radiator on production U33.
"Fallen Flags" site:
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/