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  • Discussion of General Electric locomotive technology. Current official information can be found here: www.getransportation.com.
Discussion of General Electric locomotive technology. Current official information can be found here: www.getransportation.com.

Moderators: MEC407, AMTK84

 #443623  by Allen Hazen
 
We all know that railfan scholarship often perpetuates errors: one source copies from another and... And so we all know that, wherever possible, we should go to original (builder or railroad) documents on historical questions.

Alas!

Conrail's 1989 locomotive diagram book is now available at George Elwood's "Fallen Flags" rail photo site, the section for units numbered 1000 to the low 3000s at
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/cr/cr-69lb-1.pdf

Look at the U23B diagrams (one for each of the four orders Conrail had). The third order, units 2777-2788, was originally purchased by Lehigh Valley, but on the line for "Original Owner" they are listed as Penn Central units, like the earlier 2700-2749 and 2750-2756. The last order, 2789-2798, I am pretty sure, had AC generators (I think, in an earlier string, we even had the testimony of someone who had examined one of the actual units on that!) but they are listed as having GT581 dc generators like the rest.

Sometimes, alas, even original sources ...

(As for the drawings, all show what is actually a 1968-built U30B or U33B, but this is harmless: diagrams aren't meant to be good pictures, just shapes that dimensional information can be pinned to, and using a single drawing for all 4-axle GE units is good enough. I assume that what went wrong here is that, in addition to photocopying the diagram, whoever made the diagram-book entry pages just copied data from earlier pages as well.)

 #444018  by Allen Hazen
 
ATK--
Thanks! I was looking for that, to check that H.F. Malone had loode inside one of the units and seen the alternator, but couldn't find it. (If I had, I would have realized that I had posted about that 1989 diagram book before, and not wasted your time by posting about it AGAIN. Apologies.)

 #444343  by ATK
 
Yeah, between me and HFM, we've been on the 2203 once or twice!

BTW, be sure to catch TRAIN'S 2007 Locomotive magazine. There's an article in there written by yours truly about NAUG 2203 (Allen - you may have to order your copy online rather than buy it on the newsstand).

 #444377  by Allen Hazen
 
ATK--
Thanks for the heads-up! The Railfan Shop, here in Melbourne (Victoria, Australia) carries "Trains," so I'll keep my eyes open.
I hope to visit the Connecticut on one of my trips back to the U.S., so maybe I will get to see NAUG 2203 one of these days!