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  • INSIDE EMD Plant Tour Article Series Schedule

  • Discussion of Electro-Motive locomotive products and technology, past and present. Official web site can be found here: http://www.emdiesels.com/.
Discussion of Electro-Motive locomotive products and technology, past and present. Official web site can be found here: http://www.emdiesels.com/.

Moderator: GOLDEN-ARM

 #1480510  by PCook
 
Part One of the INSIDE EMD plant tour article series was published in issue #218 of Railway & Locomotive Historical Society's RAILROAD HISTORY magazine in May, covering the building of the original EMD Plant One and the construction of EMD diesel engines in the 1970s-1980s.

Part Two of INSIDE EMD is scheduled for issue #219 of RAILROAD HISTORY, and will cover the building of DC and AC main generators and traction motors, the assembly of electrical cabinets, and the construction of other locomotive sub-assemblies and components in the 1970-1980 time frame. It will be published this fall.

Subsequent installments of the series will cover the assembly, testing, painting, and delivery of the locomotives and the demolition of the original EMD Plant One. The sequence and flow of the series of articles duplicates that of the INSIDE EMD plant tour PowerPoint program from which they were developed.

Magazines are available from R&LHS: http://www.rlhs.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Then click the "publications" tabs.

RAILROAD HISTORY is printed primarily for the membership. The supply of additional copies of any issue is subject to demand, so they may not be available "later". The INSIDE EMD PowerPoint lecture program was originally toured in 2002-2007. I did railroad related "entertainment" programs (to use the NRHS description for them) for 45 years and stopped in 2010.

PC
 #1488004  by PCook
 
The proof sheets for Part Two of the INSIDE EMD plant tour article series in R&LHS RAILROAD HISTORY magazine have been received and reviewed. The article, primarily covering the manufacture of DC and AC main generators, traction motors, and the assembly of locomotive electrical cabinets and controls, should be in print in November. Part Three of the INSIDE EMD series will cover construction of the underframe, cab and hoods, assembly of the locomotive, painting and testing, and the demolition of EMD Plant One. It will be published in 2019.

PC
 #1489493  by PCook
 
In response to some recent questions from participants here and on RYPN:

Q: When does Part Two ship?

A: Part Two of INSIDE EMD in R&LHS (rlhs.org) Railroad History Magazine begins shipping October 29.

Q: Will there be any more showings of INSIDE EMD?

A: There are no plans to bring this program back for another "tour", it was extensively traveled around the US in 2003-2007. For the most part the groups that really wanted to see it and had sufficient interest in EMD Diesels had plenty of opportunity to host a showing during all those years. Now that it will be in print, it is very unlikely to be repeated again.

Q: Is it posted anywhere on the internet?

A: A few of the showing notices from the past showings are still posted in group archives, but the program was not posted on the internet. Doing so would have required writing as many captions as for the magazine article series, and the magazine is a much better and more permanent presentation of the program, published by R&LHS which is widely respected.

PC
 #1506291  by PCook
 
Part Three of INSIDE EMD will appear in the R&LHS journal RAILROAD HISTORY Issue #220 which will be distributed in May 2019. This third section of the series covers the construction and fitting out of underframes, piping and cabling, decking operations, final assembly and the demolition of the original EMD Plant One complex. This portion of the article is 22 pages, all in color. The time period of the locomotive assembly photos is 1970's and 1980's, spanning the F40PH, SD40-2, GP38-2 to GP50 and SD50 era.

Part Two of INSIDE EMD, covering the construction of main generators, traction motors and electrical cabinets, was published in RAILROAD HISTORY Issue #219 in Fall 2018. This portion of the article is 26 pages, all in color.

Part One of INSIDE EMD, covering the construction of the La Grange Plant and the building of EMD diesel engines, was published in RAILROAD HISTORY Issue #218 in Spring 2018. This portion of the article is 26 pages, starting with plant construction in black & white and the titles and plant tour portion in color.

The issues containing the 74-page article series are available from R&LHS through their website, while the supply lasts:

http://www.rlhs.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

My thanks to the many folks in the hobby who joined R&LHS to obtain this series of plant tour articles.

PC
 #1525558  by PCook
 
Here we are in November, the 74-page INSIDE EMD article series in R&LHS Railroad History has been available for about six months, and R&LHS advises that there are about a dozen copies of Railroad History issue #218 (Building the La Grange Plant and building EMD Engines) left available. When they are gone it will no longer be possible to put together a complete set of the articles from R&LHS. The other issues (#219, building electrical equipment, main generators, and electrical cabinets and #220, assembly of the locomotives and demolition of the plant) are still available in limited quantities.

RLHS.ORG then the tab for "Publications".

Many questions and comments were received on this series, I hope to get caught up on answering them soon.

PC
 #1529286  by PCook
 
SELLOUT approaching on Issue #218, just a couple copies left at R&LHS.

Issue #219 also in limited supply.

Issue #220 should be available a while longer as it also has the Transcontinental Railroad Anniversary features and more extras were printed. It is the issue featuring the final assembly operations and demolition of the original La Grange plant.

PC
 #1539620  by PCook
 
Since the R&LHS series concluded there have been many inquiries about the future of the program. As a result of this a book version is now under consideration. Given the uncertain long term situation of the coronavirus emergency, any "live" narration showings in the future are very unlikely. At this time the entire future of groups using a "monthly meeting" and "convention" type event structure is now in unknown territory. These type of events and the groups that sponsor them could end up being "history" soon.

PC