Housatonic Locomotives

Conrail Cyclopedia has a good section on the RS-3m's....

http://crcyc.railfan.net/locos/alco/rs3m/rs3m.html

The museum I belong to up in Rochester, NY also has an RS-3m of a different sort- former Lehigh Valley #211 "hammerhead" RS-3, formerly a PRR unit:

http://www.rgvrrm.org/about_railroadequipment_lv211.htm

-otto-

Hello all,
FYI, the Housatonic Railroads' RS-3m, No. 9935 will be the power on Berkshire Scenic passenger trains for this and the next two weekends. With foliage season shifting into high gear, the RS-3m could be seen pulling up to six coaches!
Tom

Hello all,
FYI, the Housatonic Railroads' RS-3m, No. 9935 will be the power on Berkshire Scenic passenger trains for this and the next two weekends. With foliage season shifting into high gear, the RS-3m could be seen pulling up to six coaches!
Tom

My friend reports Housatonic GP9 7324 and the RS3m parked at Danbury, CT station tonight... anyone know what these engines are doing down here? I just saw the RS3m in Cannan on Sunday, figured it was heading back to tourist duty on the Berkshire Scenic Railway...

-otto-

The GP-9 is sold to New Hampshire Central, due to high airfilter box the locomotive can not go via P&W and Metro North as it will tear wire down.
The Locomotive is sold as is where is after a fire I believe .
the other Geep ex P&W 1802 is for sale too.
The RS-3m is just the mule to move the broken engine.

HRRC 7324 in better days.

Thanks Dutch.

If she's going to New Hampshire, why was she sent south to Danbury and not north to Pittsfield?

-otto-

it will probably head to pitsfield now, unless the box can be removed.

The filter enclosure is but one inch taller than the air resivoirs on the MN 750. At 15'1" plenty of clearance to move under the wire, and so it did via the P&W over the New Haven Line.

The box was not removed and it did't tear the wire down. How about that!

The RS-3m was in Danbury to help with the crossing reconstruction at White Street. It should be heading north again soon. As stated above, the geep was just awaiting pickup by the P&W and was just being parked with the RS at night by the station.

RS3 was up back at our museum yesterday for our excursion... Housatonic RR generally comes up and grabs it on a "as needed" basis to do work trains and special moves....

Does Housatonic have some not-turbocharged GP35s? I was down at the Berkshire Scenic the other night as NX-12 passed through, with 3602 and 3603(?). 3602 sounded naturally-aspirated, and whatever the other one was, turbocharged.

-Dan

The GP-35s were all turbocharged to begin with; however as the Housy has been rebuilding them they have been doing so without the turbochargers. Apparently, from what I have heard, the turbochargers are not necessary for the Housatonic's low speed operations and may even be detrimental, but I am not an expert on locomotives. I do however follow the Housy and this is what I have heard. I believe the ones with the fresh paint are the ones that have been rebuilt thus far.

It's the "cheap" rebuild program. Why spend money on the turbo when you can spend it on paint.

Actually, the majority of GP35s still in existence today have had their turbos removed and replaced with Roots blowers. One of the few railroads with GP35s that hasn't done that is Pan Am. They seem to prefer turbos for whatever reason, even keeping the junky GP35s in favor of the decent-running GP38s that they inherited from Maine Central.

MEC407 wrote:Actually, the majority of GP35s still in existence today have had their turbos removed and replaced with Roots blowers. One of the few railroads with GP35s that hasn't done that is Pan Am. They seem to prefer turbos for whatever reason, even keeping the junky GP35s in favor of the decent-running GP38s.

Sometimes I wonder why Housatonic didn't keep those ex-NS GP38s and repaint them and put them into service. They would be perfect engines for their service, and exactly how compatible are GP38 parts with GP35 parts? The 38 has a 645 prime mover, the 35 a 567. I would have loved to see them high hood geeps rolling through Lenox station!

-Dan