NS 34 - What is it?

Going thru the pic websites i had stumbled across this unusuall car. I've seen someone say it was an sd35 and now its used as a test car. What exactly does it do? and what is under the hood?

Here are some photos of NS 34:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsPict ... x?id=30901

There appears to be an exhaust pipe and muffler on the top, so I am guessing it has a generator to supply power to the geometry car.

i've seen the exhaust pipe on it. But what is this? Its on the one end and looks like an overhang with 2 dryer exhaust pipes going to the car. In another pic there are what appears to be like 3 or 4 antenna's/gps type domes on the roof.

Here' the pics, NS 34 ROOF

34 houses dedicated clean power generator for the geometry train equipment. It also has rail testing gear of it's own underneath. Don't know what it was in it's prior life but it no longer can move on its own...traction motors are long gone. Last I knew, it doesn't even have brakes.

Looks to be a track geometry/defect detector car. Has brakes, on the "B" end, as visible in the shots showing the "B" end, as well as the one showing the handbrake. Must contain an APU to run a generator/alternator to power the equipment. GPS system would relate "real time" info on cars exact location, for profiling ROW on site, as well as a remote recording location. Looks to be built on the frame on an older, first generation SD loco. Replaces what used to be a whole train of cars, with men monitoring various pieces of equipment, measiing guage, cross-level, vertical deviations, etc, as well as ultrasonic rail testing, judging by the shoes riding the rail head. Kind of like a Sperry car, built on an old loco, instead of an old Doodlebug. The techs would be riding, and reading the data, in the following coach, with more detector gear on board there, as well as the cool bay window to watch passing trains screaming by.

NS 34 began life as N&W SD35 1530. Rebuilt into RPE6 class Slug 9921 in 1976. Renumbered as 9951. To NS same. Retired in 1989. Reactivated in 1990 and leased to WLE. Returned and re-retired in 1992. Converted to NS 34 between 1994-1999.
Larry

The geometry car I saw recently did not have this unit. It had a caboose between the engine and geometry car.