NYC FT's

Like the Burlington, were the New York Centrals FT's semi-permanetly connected, or were they individual units? At any time in the NYC's history, could you see a consist along the lines of a FT(A), F3(B), F3(A)?
C.J.V.

The FT's from EMD were designed to be semi-permanently coupled with drawbars. NYC's came and stayed that way thoughout their career. There were mods made by a few roads to break them up, but it was involved, as each unit couldn't stand alone (batteries were shared, I belive) and there were difficulties fitting draft gear under the short ends (hence the drawbars).

Mackdave
Modeling the River Division NYC from MP 12 to 14

"The FT's from EMD were designed to be semi-permanently coupled with drawbars." In a sense that's true by definition: EMD used the model designation "FT" for drawbar-connected units. Many of the locomotives often thought of as FT-- 1350 hp cab and booster units built 1939 to 1945, with four portholes on the side-- however, were built with automatic couplers at each end: EMD used the model designation "FS" ("S" perhaps for "separate") for this production(*). All of ATSF's "FT" locomotives were actually FS cabs and boosters, for example. So the question wasn't silly, even if NYC's 1600-2400 pairs were drawbar connected.

(*) The nomenclature of these early F-units is discussed in Preston Cook's article on F-units in the July 2008 issue of "Railfan and Railroad." It's not clear to me from what he says just when EMD started using the two different model designations for coupler equipped and drawbar-connected units: some model designations seem to have been applied retrospectively.

George Ellwood's marvelous "Fallenflags" rail image site has, among other things, New York Central locomotive diagrams.
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/nyc/nyc-dfa1a.gif
is the diagram for the FTA, noting that NYC's FTA units are drawbar connected to FTB units.

The FT diesel was designed and the FT-103 demonstrator and early production models built with drawbars betwen the A and B units. In fact, the early ones didn't even have doors between the A and B units!! After production began, Santa Fe began looking into a way to add couplers in place of the drawbars, and at some point GM worked out a way to do it and added it as an option to the FT. (I think Santa Fe modified some on their own first?)

GM F units were the FT, F-2, F-3, F-7 and F-9...however during the transition from the F-3 to F-7 some engines were produced that were sometimes referred to by railroads (GN for example) and railfans as "F-5s" but this IIRC was never an official GM designation. So it may be that GM used "FS" as some internal name for FT units with couplers at both ends, but everything I've ever seen just refers to them as "FT"s.

If you're interested in learning more about the FT, the following book would be a worthwhile acquisition:

http://www.goldenspike.us/?page=shop/fl ... 3374bdc1ea

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