Railroad Forums
Moderator: JJMDiMunno
Noel Weaver wrote:This probably goes back many, many years to the era when the New York Central way buying diesels for specific assignmentsThat's about like how there were a handful of PC GP38s with the EMD tandem control stand (as built) - set up so one could switch sides without needing to stop the locomotive and set it back up again, the two were connected through some means. This caused the center of the cab to need to be pushed out about a foot. There were dynamic brake equipped units (7822 comes to mind) and non-dynamic units (7904-5-6). The latter may have been a PRSL order that ended up going to PC instead. (Conrail also inherited some Reading SD45s with this stand). I'm not sure that they kept this setup, or even dual control, by the 1990s. But these too were ordered for specific locations/jobs, apparently, since only a handful came that way.
and had them "custom built" and tailored to these particular assignments. I remember working on a former NYC Alco/GE
yard engine in Oak Point one night with the control stand in front of the engineer rather than aside the engineer as most of
the others were. It may have been fine for a hump yard or something like that but it was a stinker to work on in the yard
at Oak Point or Harlem River. Both the BLE divisions on the Central and New Haven complained about that particular
engine and it did not stay in New York for very long.
Noel Weaver