CF7s

Whats the most cars anyone has pulled with a CF7? Just curious--Ive done 60 mty hoppers before (with no air) while switching. 80 cars with a GP10

80 cars with a GP10? My god that sucker must have been screaming...

I've shoved 40 loaded covered hoppers up a hill, through three switches and across a flange greaser with one CF-7. I had air, and marginal sand. I liked this unit, but the cab was setup so that it felt like I was sitting right on top of the front window. Wierd feeling.

Then we got rid of that and had a Leased GP16 from SBD. JunkJunkJunk. Very slippery, and with only 8 brakes it wouldn't stop all that well either. This was an FRA site I worked on, and the company only kept this thing legal by the skin of its teeth.

Britt

HAHAHA--when engr. is asleep, could also be when engr. is on the phone!

We were switching WITH air those 80 cars (per new rules) so, while it was screaming on the long moves, I usually was pumping up the air. Played with the throttle (3,4,5th notch) to maintain abt. 8-900 amps when pulling/shoving.

Do all GP10s lurch when throttle is moved to 1st notch?

CF7s are decent, but hard to enter cab with grip, ice box, lunch. M-U 2 or 3 and its off to the races!

It has been a good 25 plus years, but I've handled around 70 cars with an RS-1, flat switching. A mixture of 55 and 90 ton tank cars, some MTs, some loads, some friction, some rollers, bad track.

The RS-1 weighs just about the same as the CF-7, and the TM's have similar current ratings. The extra 500 HP on the CF-7 would allow you to accelerate faster, although the Alco would load up faster.

FWIW, ATSF chose to wire the CF-7s just like a GP-7, with the "teaser circuit" excitation used in the switching mode. Working properly, a CF-7 (or GP-7) should load up fairly quickly. The other thing interesting is the transition; just like the GP-7 there is no field shunting. Series/parallel and full parallel is all you get.

I think ATSF really had their act together when they cooked up these things. (Well, that is up until they started using the "Topeka cab", also seen on rebuilt Geeps-)