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Post by ciccino on Mar 17, 2018 5:11:32 GMT -5
I am wondering if E8A locomotives ever saw freight service. I would like to combine some AZL locomotives with matching (non passenger) cars.
I searched for pictures on Railpicture.net, but unfortunately I could find Erie Lackawanna's only. There is a single picture of a NYC Central E8A pulling a freight convoy, but author is not certain it is actually an E8A.
Any advice?
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Post by markm on Mar 17, 2018 9:03:18 GMT -5
I've looked over all my references and can't find an example of an E unit in freight service. But that doesn't mean it never happened. The problem is that the E units were built for speed (up to 90 MPH) and not pulling capacity. I'd imagined them being used for a short fast freight (REA), a mail train and in conjunction with a freight units in a pinch.
Hope this helps,
Mark
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Post by cwrr on Mar 17, 2018 9:05:17 GMT -5
I know the Rock Island used ex-Union Pacific E-units for freight trains, still painted in UP colors, in the late 60's to early 70's. I wanna say the Penn Central did the same, about the same era?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 17, 2018 11:52:51 GMT -5
Link1Link2Does this help or ... even confuse more ? 
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Post by ztrack on Mar 17, 2018 11:54:56 GMT -5
I Googled EMD E8 freight. Sure enough a few examples came up! It looks like the Erie Lackawanna used theirs for freight.   Rob |
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Post by ciccino on Mar 19, 2018 5:53:58 GMT -5
So, in the end it seems that, but for Erie Lackawanna, very few railway companies put E8s in the lead of freigth trains. Funny thing, almost ALL railways put F3s and F7s to lead passenger trains :-P
Fast passenger locomotives couldn't pull freight cars, but slower freight locomotives could pull passenger trains. No wonder travel-by-train concept died a long time ago in the USA ah ah ah
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Post by domi on Mar 23, 2018 1:51:45 GMT -5
So, in the end it seems that, but for Erie Lackawanna, very few railway companies put E8s in the lead of freigth trains. Funny thing, almost ALL railways put F3s and F7s to lead passenger trains :-P Fast passenger locomotives couldn't pull freight cars, but slower freight locomotives could pull passenger trains. No wonder travel-by-train concept died a long time ago in the USA ah ah ah As said earlier all the question is about gearing. When you quote "slower freight locomotives could pull passenger trains", that's not exactly true. I guess you mean F-Units indeed, but one has to know these samples that were used for passenger service were accordingly geared, in order to run at speeds of 90+ mph. The same as E-Units. Speaking of Es, these had a A1A-A1A wheel arrangement. Thus an adhesive weight roughly the same as 4-axle freight units. As a consequence, it's easy to understand why these locos were very scarcely used for freight service, where what you need first is tractive effort. And in my understanding, an E-Unit, even if accordingly geared, is able of roughly the same tractive effort as a freight F'. Es were really made for fast passenger service and there were no real reason to use them otherwise. One may imagine the exceptions pictured above (Erie Lawackanna) were only due to motive power shortage. Dom |
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Post by ciccino on Mar 23, 2018 2:13:51 GMT -5
Dom, I guess you are right. It is strange that with the 60s fall of long-distance passenger trains, and consequent abundance of E8s, there is such shortage of pictures. I got from one of Alberich’s links that several railways downgraded those locomotives to freight service. Anyway, I find US railroad history really fascinating :-)
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Post by domi on Mar 23, 2018 2:32:31 GMT -5
Anyway, I find US railroad history really fascinating :-) I do, as well. Even as I'm living on the other side of the Pond.  Dom |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2018 3:12:26 GMT -5
I started a topic with the same subject in the past, it seems that the E8's were only used for freight since the 80's, and this was not compatible with my project (1964).
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