I found a nice BIG photo online. Hundreds of BNSF locos staged in a yard. Nose to tail...nose to nose...tail to tail. I decided I would try to count how many there where. I figure the best way to count em is to count "cabs" right? I got to the second line and lo and behold I come to 'something' that I dont see a cab on. I look closer...examine from every angle...and for the life of me...NO CAB! Now...I readily admit I dont know a lot about the hobby. BUT...I DO know some locos from others. I know a GP 20 from a GP 40...I know a GP 38 from a GP 38-2. What I dont know is what I am seeing in this lineup! I highlighted it in a cropped area of the photo... What is it? :tb-wacky::tb-err: .
It`s a B unit. Cabless unit. Has all the goodies of a locomotive, except the cab. It was controlled from another unit in a multi unit lashup..
SEE !!! I knew I could depend on you guys here at Trainboard !! I googled images of a SD45-2B...and yup...sure looks like it. I havent seen one yet...so it sure threw me...Thnxs again guys ^5 !! .
Give me a chance here! You might be interested in this information. It is a cabless SD 45-2. Santa Fe wasn't pro Cabless Units as UP was or is. The SD45-2's arrived on Santa Fe property, as brand new units. There is more to that story. Many of these cabless units were rebuilds, from trade ins (prime mover failed & fire in the cab) or from rail accidents. The damaged units delivered to and rebuilt by the SB shops came from a accident that occurred on Cajon Pass. The engine numbers were retired and the units came out with brand new numbers. The San Bernardino Shops rebuilt the SD 45's as Cabless Units. One of them sagged and had to be taken off line due to a undetected fracture in the frame and the prime mover and other components removed and used for other rebuilds. The fracture was caused by metal fatigue due or the consequence of, the fire that occurred at the time of the accident. It isn't likely you will find this information recorded in any of the rail fan produced, roster books. My research comes from the Santa Fe crews that worked the accident, delivered them to the SB shops and rebuilt them. I worked the accident in a non-railroad capacity allowing me contact with said Santa Fe employees. Some employees said of the cabless units that this was done to honor those crews that died in these cabs. Never would a crew ride in them again. I hope this helps. Are you going to try and scratch build one of these? .
Or could you post where the original pic is? It looks like the early years of BNSF, with little to no patching done and all repaints in H1. I'd really like to know when and where this was.
That looks very much like the shot(s) taken of BNSF's LUGO (Laid Up Good Order) fleet in the twin cities, and is likely several years old. I suspect at this point in time many of them have gone on to smaller roads. BNSF may have had other LUGO areas but I am most aware of the twin cities one.
Here are a couple I copied from the net a long time ago. Have a couple more somewhere on another computer. They are from the Northtown yard in Minneapolis. I have no idea who the original photographer was. I wish I knew how to do that thumbnail link thing.
Is there a difference, for those that identified this as a "B" unit, between a "B" unit and a "slug"? My favorite nearby class III has some chopped down power-only units that they call slugs. You can see some pictures of at least one of these slugs if you click this link. Adam P.S. I love the title of the thread... it's kind of like on "Ask this Old House" when one of the guys throws out something with a cable, a chain on one end, and some sort of gee-gaw on the other and they all guess what it is.
It took some research...but I found it...;-) http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=1826&nseq=563
Simple answer, what I have been told is usually "Slugs" don't have a prime mover, and take power for the traction motors from the towing unit. where as "B units" usually have the prime mover in place and functioning. Intresting Note too, Someone once told me that all B units have some kind of primitive controls, whether it be a set in a access pannel where the cab once was, a socket to plug in a controler of some sort, or in modern time, radio control equipment. anyone else want to chime in on this one?
Thats true, some B units do have controls to move them on their own. I saw pictures of the control stand of a Pennsy GP9B. The hostler peered out the round window where the cab would normally be to see where he was going.
Were these taken in Barstow, CA? i remember years ago the Barstow Loco facility was filled with locos sitting in the deadline.
Thanks much for all whom shared their knowledge. I found this thread quite interesting and very informative on a topic I knew nothing about. :tb-cool:
Or, in the case of KCS, a big block of concrete. I had the privilege to climb in the cabs of KCS F3A and F7A slugs 4050 and 4055, respectively, when they arrived in Hugo, OK on the Kiamichi Railroad back in 1990. Back in the engine room where the prime mover would have been was a large block of concrete.
