ApproachMedium wrote: ↑Thu Jun 30, 2022 1:22 pm
photobug56 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 29, 2022 8:02 pm
So maybe the right question should be - why did LIRR buy such junk? I get it; few choices. But I remember hearing early on that LIRR knew how bad these locos were.
LIRR was HELL BENT on only buying EMD powered machines. They got what they paid for. They were a huge thorn in the side of SIEMENS and the other two agencies with the dual modes because their managment/engineers DEMANDED an actual air horn valve instead of the electronic button because they did not like how the button worked on the DE/DM engines and insisted that they ran a bunch of hoses to the cab and back to the roof for horns.
Stupid.
Hard to disagree! While I want horns that sound decent and do the needed job without disturbing neighbors, unless you are talking a steam loco, I don't care what powers them. As to EMD, it was long a proud entity with great products, but I'd guess that the people behind those great products wouldn't want to be associated with the LIRR junk. I would guess that LIRR overpaid though. And from what I've heard repeatedly, has little interest in properly maintaining them. I have plenty of memories, usually sitting up front EB, of sitting somewhere in Queens while the train operator tried repeatedly to get the diesels to start, and besides the sound, you knew to keep an eye out for the black cloud that came when it finally (if it did) start. WB, everything going dead - or half of each car going dead, as they tried to get EMODE working. My fav; pulling into Jamaica, lights going off, numerous attempts to go E, an announcement to get off and grab an overcrowded M across the platform, and just after 95% of riders had gotten off, them getting E working, conductor announcing that the train would proceed, and pulling out mostly empty.