Sorry I cant help you as I never ran any. I can check with my buddies and see what they can tell me. Charlie
Here is the info from an official source. He is a conductor with high seniority. He is also a railfan and a modeler. I quote him... "The E-8/9's were rebuilt with the 567 engines that they originally came with. None of Q/BN motors were rebuilt with only one prime mover. The steam boiler room located in the rear behind the rear electric cabinet (facing toward the back) is where the HEP was located. The first HEP package was a Detroit diesel single which worked fine with 8 cars or less. The second rebuild with the HEP came with a pair of Cummins engines each capable of handling 7 cars each, or a total of a possible 14 cars, rather long for our service. "
Thank you charlie, I finally have the answer. I was so confused since I heard both responses over the last few years. I always enjoyed those units and from a modeling aspect I have 8 CBQ Es from Proto 2000, 1 each Milwaukee CNW and Amtrak. I do love those Es. Thanks again
Now that I look at some roof shots of these, I can see they had two prime movers to the end. The only difference between the front and rear sections is the piping on the sides of the roof over the rear engine. But since I'm not the only one who thought they were re-engined, where did that idea come from?
UP E38's On the UP website, their excursion E's did get 645E's when rebuilt last time, but put back to 2K hp per unit. The BN E's must have been too far gone to do this. I suppose only in the model world could they get a turbo & upgraded to E40's & 3K hp. The Hallmark ornaments this year are NYC FT's. Not sure if an Nscaler will bother to try to power them & pull a train of shorty coaches & obv.
I think it was because when they went in for the 73 and 78 overhauls (two seprate batches 9900-9908 in 73 and 9910-9925 in 78) that it was thought that the second engine in the unit was removed to make room for HEP generator. This is my perception.
That happened to one NJT E8. Since the BN rebuilds were earlier and re-engining is a more extensive rebuild in my book, that doesn't make much sense. I'd question the feasibility of that, at least with the original traction motors. Cab units can be rebuilt extensively - think of FL9ACs, re-engined from 1750/1800 hp to 3200 hp and fitted with AC traction motors. Okay, those weren't very successful. Or think of the lone MKT F3 upgraded to F38-2 standards. Or VIA's FP9s re-engined with 1800 hp 645s in the 80s. If you put the same effort into keeping them around that you do to GP9s and other first-generation hood units and switchers, they can last.
You Guys are forgetting BN-1 and 2 which were re-engined to F38-2s...Which may be where the 645 confusion comes from. BN-3 was an E unit. Maybe it got the 645(s)
