Does U25B prototype 752 still exist?

[MEC407]

Damn.

It's amazing how seemingly simple miscommunications can make such a catastrophic mess of things.

[GN 599]

The Oregon California and Eastern Ry purchased seven U25B's, two of which were slugs the other five having EMD 567's. One was believed to be the first low nose demonstrator, which very well could be true considering they were all former UP motors. After the OC&E called it quits in 91 they went to Econorail and were dispersed to other operations. Does anyone know their status. I tried to contact Econorail a few times a while back I would really like to buy one, seriously. I think some GE nuts should track down the low nose demonstrator anyway.

[MEC407]

Regarding the U25Bs re-engined with EMD 567s, were they turbo 567s or roots-blown 567s? The reason I ask is because I'm trying to imagine what the exhaust stack configuration would look like, i.e. one large stack or two small ones.

[mp15ac]

Roots-blown 567's. Two small stacks on the roof.

Sruart

[Allen Hazen]

...from, I think it was said at the time, retired B&O F-7. So think of them as what a Santa Fe CF-7 would have been with better traction motors. (Grin!)

[MEC407]

Do any pictures of these beasts exist on the web?

[LCJ]

Here's one:

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/ge751.jpg

[MEC407]

Sorry, I meant pictures of the U25s re-engined with 567s.

[GN 599]

If you type in Econorail it used to bring up their website with a pic of one of them with a slug. On the fallen flags website I think there is a pic of one in the misc "E" roads unner Econorail, check out all the motors on that one I think you can see them hiding in the background as well.

[MEC407]

Thanks! I searched Google for EconoRail and found this page:

http://www.tgsgroup.com/econorail.htm

Two EMD-engined U25Bs and a slug of some kind. Pretty cool.

[MEC407]

Found another picture here:

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/misc-p/pob-er7603bgs.jpg

The referring page refers to it as an MK TE53-1-4E. Now I've seen some confusing model designations, but that one takes the cake. Anybody know what it stands for?

[Allen Hazen]

Morrison-Knudsen gave a number of their rebuilds in the 1970s model designations of that form. I think TE means tractive effort, the next bit is the continuous tractive effort in thousands of pounds, and that the E on the end stands for EMD engine. But I could be wrong. I'm also not sure whether that designation applied to the U25B carbodied rebuilds, or only to the one (on a U25B frame) that M-K built their own freelance carbody on. (Hmmm. Maybe their own weird-looking unit was a T53-4E, and the 1 in the middle stands for a modification?)

[Espeelark]

To answer the original question, I believe that there is a former NYC U25B preserved/stored at the LakeShore Railway Historical Society's grounds in Northeast, PA. The LSRHS is about 10 miles east of the Erie, GE plant. Their website http://www.velocity.net/~lsrhs/index.html doesn't specifically mention it but I'm sure you could email them and get some more info about it.
Paul Mac
Modeling the SP in Ohioml

[GN 599]

Yeah basicly I grew up with those hybrids. I dont remember much of them firsthand because I was a little kid but I have a VHS of the last log train on the OC&E. Toward the end of operations they ran four of them together and left one at the shops to rotate one out at a time for maintenance. I have a VHS of four of em on an 85 car log train coming up 2.0 grade and coming down 2.2 with dynos screaming. The crews loved them because they really were the ultimate second generation deisel. EMD prime mover with GE traction. Of the five rebuilds and two slugs cut down from other U25's there was another one which was little known about. I dont remember its number but it was also a MK rebuild but was a straight Weyerhauser unit. Unfornunately in 84 they ran it out of water and smoked that 567 so it became a parts source for the other U25 rebuilds. The OC&E was ran by the SP and GN later BN for five years at a time until 75 when Weyerhauser bought the line thats when they came up with those motors. They leased F's from the BN in an array of predessor colors. They didnt work so they bought RSD12's and RS11's from the SP which were junk and were sold back to the SP after one of the RSD's caught on fire. The OC&E had a line that branched off to the north which was always run by Weyerhauser from day one. They deiselized it with two DRS 4-4750 demonstrators and two S8's. In the mid 80's they were all scrapped except the 101, one of the demonstrators. They were replaced by ex-BN GP7's and the "ghost' U25. After the U25's showed up on the OC&E four former ACL RS12's were added to the roster because they were running so many log trains. They were retired in 84 and now are in Michigan stashed away with sharknoses. I work with a guy who's dad ran the RS12's dowh "the hill", #6 brake valve and no dyno's feed valve braking was his "preffered method".

[Centurylover68]

We should be thankful GE (I think) still has Cristine, the ex-SF U23-B with a Smurf painted on the nose. Last I knew it was being used as a shop switcher.