(Another bit of GE locomotive oddity...)
Steve McMillan's (outstandingly good!) article on the Alco C430 in "Diesel Era" vol. 5, no. 5 (September-October 1994) tells a convoluted story about how the New York Central came to order its C430 with Hi-Ad trucks. Over the four years 1964-1967, the New York Central acquired 132 GE freight locomotives: 154 if you include the P&LE's twenty-two U28B. These units all rode on "Type B"(*) trucks, which (at least in most cases) came from Alco trade-ins. Given the rate of new locomotive orders, there were stages at which the New York Central didn't have enough Alcos ready to retire to keep up with the demand!
As a result, 18 GE units were delivered with trucks from Fairbanks-Morse trade-ins:
---- U25B 2553-2560 (2553-2559 were from the NYCRR's penultimate U25B order, built in 1/65-2/65 with the "Phase III" carbody features of divided windshield and later-style handrail stanchions; 2560 was from the final, "Phase 4" order with the slope-top short hood: this order was built in 7/65-9/65, but apparently not in order, with 2560 having the highest builder's number and apparently built in 9/65)(**), and
---- U30B 2830-2839 (New York Central's first U30B, built in early 1967, with the "U28B-style" carbody).
QUESTION #1: New York Central's F-M units with two-axle trucks had Westinghouse electrical gear. I don't ***think*** GE would have wanted to use Westinghouse motors on its new locomotives (I think I remember that the W'house traction motor had six poles, so using it would have entailed non-standard cabling, and I think it had different ventilation arrangements from GE motors: using GE electrical gear on the last two 1600 hp Baldwins involved significant re-design of the locomotive), so... Would the trucks have had to be modified in order to accept GE motors?
QUESTION #2: Does the non-standard truck appear in (early-- see below) photos of these units? Obviously the C-liner truck, with its curve-bottom drop equalizer, would be immediately recognizable, but the NYCRR had nineteen (enough to supply the 18 GE units mentioned with one left over!) H20-44, which used the "Type B" truck. To make spotting even harder, although Baldwin used a 9' 10" wheelbase version of this truck, the H20-44 used a 9' 6" wheelbase version: only two inches longer than the version used on Alcos! So it might be hard to recognize the truck difference. (Looking at a bunch of photos, it seems as if the F-M truck may have slightly narrower frame and drop equalizers than the Alco version, but this could be my imagination. I suspect it is also my imagination that the trucks on NYC 2553 in the mid-1967 photo at
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/nyc/nyc2553gea.jpg
look somehow a bit....)
Apparently the whole effort to save money by using F-M trucks was a bit of a bust because, McMillan says
"This turned out to be a nuisance in the long run, because the F-M trucks required a different wheelset from that used in the Alco double-equalized truck. Therefore, as Alco units were retired, their trucks were exchanged with the F-M trucks under the GEs. This left Alco units on F-M trucks to be traded in on the C-430s, and although components, such as contactors, were reused, the trucks were not."
QUESTION #3: Why did the F-M trucks need different wheelsets? H20-44, like first generation Alco freight power, had 6.5"/12" journals. But-- from photos-- NYCRR's H20-44 seem to have had friction bearings: would a roller-bearing journal able to fit in the same journal guides in the truck have needed a different axle dimension?
--
(*) Yes, I know that "Type B" is a railfan-invented term, but it's shorter than any accurate description I can think of...
(**) Roster information from "Rairoad Model Craftsman" for August 1987 and from
http://www.thedieselshop.us/GE_U25B.HTML
Steve McMillan's (outstandingly good!) article on the Alco C430 in "Diesel Era" vol. 5, no. 5 (September-October 1994) tells a convoluted story about how the New York Central came to order its C430 with Hi-Ad trucks. Over the four years 1964-1967, the New York Central acquired 132 GE freight locomotives: 154 if you include the P&LE's twenty-two U28B. These units all rode on "Type B"(*) trucks, which (at least in most cases) came from Alco trade-ins. Given the rate of new locomotive orders, there were stages at which the New York Central didn't have enough Alcos ready to retire to keep up with the demand!
As a result, 18 GE units were delivered with trucks from Fairbanks-Morse trade-ins:
---- U25B 2553-2560 (2553-2559 were from the NYCRR's penultimate U25B order, built in 1/65-2/65 with the "Phase III" carbody features of divided windshield and later-style handrail stanchions; 2560 was from the final, "Phase 4" order with the slope-top short hood: this order was built in 7/65-9/65, but apparently not in order, with 2560 having the highest builder's number and apparently built in 9/65)(**), and
---- U30B 2830-2839 (New York Central's first U30B, built in early 1967, with the "U28B-style" carbody).
QUESTION #1: New York Central's F-M units with two-axle trucks had Westinghouse electrical gear. I don't ***think*** GE would have wanted to use Westinghouse motors on its new locomotives (I think I remember that the W'house traction motor had six poles, so using it would have entailed non-standard cabling, and I think it had different ventilation arrangements from GE motors: using GE electrical gear on the last two 1600 hp Baldwins involved significant re-design of the locomotive), so... Would the trucks have had to be modified in order to accept GE motors?
QUESTION #2: Does the non-standard truck appear in (early-- see below) photos of these units? Obviously the C-liner truck, with its curve-bottom drop equalizer, would be immediately recognizable, but the NYCRR had nineteen (enough to supply the 18 GE units mentioned with one left over!) H20-44, which used the "Type B" truck. To make spotting even harder, although Baldwin used a 9' 10" wheelbase version of this truck, the H20-44 used a 9' 6" wheelbase version: only two inches longer than the version used on Alcos! So it might be hard to recognize the truck difference. (Looking at a bunch of photos, it seems as if the F-M truck may have slightly narrower frame and drop equalizers than the Alco version, but this could be my imagination. I suspect it is also my imagination that the trucks on NYC 2553 in the mid-1967 photo at
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/nyc/nyc2553gea.jpg
look somehow a bit....)
Apparently the whole effort to save money by using F-M trucks was a bit of a bust because, McMillan says
"This turned out to be a nuisance in the long run, because the F-M trucks required a different wheelset from that used in the Alco double-equalized truck. Therefore, as Alco units were retired, their trucks were exchanged with the F-M trucks under the GEs. This left Alco units on F-M trucks to be traded in on the C-430s, and although components, such as contactors, were reused, the trucks were not."
QUESTION #3: Why did the F-M trucks need different wheelsets? H20-44, like first generation Alco freight power, had 6.5"/12" journals. But-- from photos-- NYCRR's H20-44 seem to have had friction bearings: would a roller-bearing journal able to fit in the same journal guides in the truck have needed a different axle dimension?
--
(*) Yes, I know that "Type B" is a railfan-invented term, but it's shorter than any accurate description I can think of...
(**) Roster information from "Rairoad Model Craftsman" for August 1987 and from
http://www.thedieselshop.us/GE_U25B.HTML