The work is progressing well and she will be in good running condition and painted by spring. For commuter service CNW bought her and added HEP to power their all-electric Gallery Commuter Cars. Among the changes, the unit's batteries were moved into the water tank (no need for gallons of water if you are not making steam) and the rear most body side panels were replaced with louvered panels. The panels will be replaced but for the time being the batteries will stay.

I note that six Milwaukee Road E9s were built by EMD with HEP. In this picture of 38C you can see a small set of louvers behind the last porthole which identifies it as having HEP.



These six then probably never left the Chicago commuter zone and never pulled the UP "City" trains as UP 942 no doubt did. Coincidently several UP E8s and the six Milw E9s ended up owned by the NE Illinois RTA though I don't remember the Milwaukee's being painted into RTA colors as the UPs were.

How many other E-units were built with HEP. Of course, many BN Es were rebuilt as E9s with HEP. What about back east?

Marty,

Given your current location, can I assume that the last item in the title of this thread should be OERM, i.e., Orange Empire Rwy Museum?

Or is this a new group working out of Orem, Utah? ;)

Thanks!

Oops! Thanks Jim. Fixed it.

MILW 36A was in Chicago/Joliet for a while painted in Indiana RR colors, then was painted MILW/UP yellow and was sent out to Tacoma/CEECO for use on the ill-fated 2100 excursions out there as a HEP source. It was then spotted in 2010 rolling in a BNSF freight with reporting marks MRL for Montana Rail Link, and was apparently/allegedly being held in Livingston, Montana pending some alleged legal issues involving work performed (or not) during its stay at CEECO............ then finally ended up in Deer Lodge, Montana on display next to the "Little Joe" there, after alleged donation by MRL to the Powell County Museum there:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=2200295

A chronicle of events in photos: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/Locopi ... ?id=127640

If I remember correctly, the MILW HEP on these late E9s were in the form of an alternator applied to the #2 prime mover, similar to a F40PH. When engaged, the prime mover ran at a higher RPM, similar to running in notch 8.

The CN&W, however, preferred CAT engines to run a seperate HEP plant. I assume that is what the E8 at OERM has, or had. The extra rans, where the old dynamic hatch would have been, are cooling fans for the CAT engine.

IRM has the former Milwaukee 33C and 37A. One has the early HEP, one does not. I can't remember which is which. The 33C is in the middle of a rather extensive rehab in the IRM diesel shop. Both were retired in the Armor Yellow paint.

As an aside, it appears the MILW liked to replace the plymetal sides with painted masonite, with "intersting" results over time.

David,

The HEP running off a constant speed #2 engine was a one of a kind experiment, on MILW 33C.

The other 6 MILW HEP E9's (36a, 36C, 37A, 37C, 38A, and 38C) were built with Cummins V-12 engines in the "steam generator room" (leaving "just enough" room between the battery boxes and the HEP engine to install the batteries).

Likewise, the masonite panels currently on the left rear corner of MILW 37A were not standard procedure, but were used due to the locomotive having "cornered" something, and the repairs resulted in the need for slightly off-size (and slightly non rectangular) panels. Metra choose to use masonite rather than custom sized plymetal, and when the locomotive came to IRM in the early 1980's, the failing masonite was replaced in kind.

Jeff

Jeff,

Thanks for the clarification. I wonder why they didn't move the storage batteries to under the unit like the CNW did? Or did they opt for larger fuel tanks? AS you say, must not have been a lot of room back there between the Cummins unit and the side to get around it.

I've noticed that Masonite siding doesn't appear to weather well, but understand the desire for a cost effective repair.

I believe the Milwaukee Road did the bare minimum to do the HEP conversion on 33C, and with the HEP gearbox being quite a bit smaller than a Cummins or Cat diesel, there was no real incentive to more the batteries when this unit was converted.

Interestlingly, this unit's HEP conversion appears to predate the F40PH model, and may have served as a rolling testbed for their constant speed HEP system.

The other 6 were built as HEP by EMD, and are as close to the steam generator equipped version as possible, including having a steam heat trainline, so that they could serve on non commuter runs when MU'ed with a steam generator equipped unit. As such, the batteries are in the standard location.

Jeff