I like to doodle around with fantasy road names and fantasy rail stock, and came up with this rendition of a PC electric box cab. To my surprise, I then found out that the PC actually did run such a machine in classic PC colors, in the Sunnyside Yard, shunting passenger coaches! The prototype was similar to this, but used a rigid three axle bogie.
Wow, looks like it was a bigger motor at one time, then "kitbashed" by the shops into a smaller motor for moving cars around!
If this was initially a "stand alone" unit, I would be surprised. my guess is it was part of a set. It was either cut into a single by choice or ("remodeled") through an accident.
You're mostly correct Boxcab -- they were PRR Class B1 and most were delivered in pairs, but eventually saw single unit use.
Thanks, Hardcoaler. I've searched the net, and never came across those great photos before. What kind of service did these serve in?`Thanks again, great images.
I think most of them served in Sunnyside Yard on Long Island, switching passenger trains in and out of Penn Station. I think a handful were also assigned to the Philadelphia area.
That's a good point -- Harrisburg might have indeed seen some B1s. I'm not sure about Washington, thinking that the Washington Terminal RR handled the switching there. But perhaps so!
I had to break out my copy of Pennsy Power by Alvin Staufer to find out and yes, they were built in "semi-permanently coupled pairs". In a builder's photo you can see an arrangement using two drawbars stacked between each pair. As the years went by, they were converted to operate individually with traditional knuckle couplers. All 42 units were built by the PRR in Altoona and yes indeed, the book confirms that some saw service in Philadelphia and Harrisburg. The book reads that electric switchers were rarities in North America. I wonder if any other road fielded such?
I seem to remember Mott Haven Jct. in the late Fifties or very early Sixties having electric switchers. I think they were NH although most of the power was NYC.
Interesting about the New Haven's switchers. I did a little research and indeed found a handful of models, most built in the teens and surviving into the 1950s.
Sepp, the Mott Haven switchers were all NYC S Motors. Mott Haven yard was powered by 600 VDC undershot third rail. New Haven motors were all 11 KV, 25 Hz catenary powered, so NH switchers couldn't work there. Occasionally I would ride behind a pair of S Motors assigned to a Harlem Division train when no P Motor or T Motor were available. They were hot little beasts, I noticed no difference in acceleration or speed. Here's a photo of an NYC 4-D-4 S3 motor, the last of the S series. The S1 and S2 motors were 2-D-2.
Were those diminutive pantographs atop NYC 1101? If so, does anyone know why they were so small? Reminds me of pre-war tinplate.
The baby pants were to provide emergency overhead carry through power in Mott Haven and Grand Central Terminal where complex switching track work prevented continuous third rail. Kinda embarrassing to have a stalled motor starved for power, doncha know. LOL BTW, my uncle had a Lionel Standard Gauge model just like your photo that he let me play with. They were heavy suckers for a four-year old, but neat fun.
What's funny is when I used to see old tinplate locomotives with those little pantographs, I just thought, "well, that's tinplate." And then, I eventually found out they were being prototypical! Doug
I've learned a lot here. I was like Doug, thinking that Lionel's tiny pans were typical tinplate detail. Then upon seeing Hytec's prototype photo and his answer to my question, I now understand it all. Pretty darn cool.
