[rfranzosa]

 NW_611, on Jan 2 2009, 02:09 PM, said:

Rick tells me this sort of lashup was rare, but what the heck. It's an all-FL9 consist pulling the postwar Merchants Limited south of Philadelphia on NECv4.0, so the whole thing's an improbable scenario. I just wanted to celebrate with these new units:

These units look and sound great! (Glorious black and white liveried units will be displayed later, when Rick isn't looking.)

Thanks, nice shot.

It was rare, but not unheard of. The photo below is the cover photo of the book "Diesels to Park Avenue". The caption reads: "A nationwide airline strike brought travel back down to earth and gave the railroads a momentary boost in ridership. Such was the case on July 31, 1966 when the New Haven's flag ship train, the Merchants Limited, sported an extra FL9 for its lengthened consist at Boston's South Station. Matthew J Herson, Jr."

RGF

[Sandy River Tom]

#1 Didn't the Merchants Limited run into Grand Central? (I don't think the FL9s ran south of NYCity.)

#2 The prototype photo shows that the New Haven used a "Rainstorm" as a "Car Washer"

#3 IIRC, the NH usually ran the FL9s in singles, and pairs; although I have seen a Black/Orange
NH GP9 MU'd with an FL9 on a passenger run.

Question for Rick F. or Phil M:
I recall that the NH ordered GP9s with steam generators.
Was that for branch passenger service, or as possible backups/boosters for the FL9s???

[rfranzosa]

 Sandy River Tom, on Jan 2 2009, 04:10 PM, said:

#1 Didn't the Merchants Limited run into Grand Central? (I don't think the FL9s ran south of NYCity.)

Yes, GCT was the destination.

Quote

#2 The prototype photo shows that the New Haven used a "Rainstorm" as a "Car Washer"

There was a car washer in South Boston, but I think locomotives were, um, exempt :lol:

Quote

#3 IIRC, the NH usually ran the FL9s in singles, and pairs; although I have seen a Black/Orange
NH GP9 MU'd with an FL9 on a passenger run.

Triples were rare, pairs were common on the shore line and singles New Haven to Springfield

Quote

Question for Rick F. or Phil M:
I recall that the NH ordered GP9s with steam generators.
Was that for branch passenger service, or as possible backups/boosters for the FL9s???

The GP9s were originally intended to replace ALL New Haven road power, the Dumaine administration was going to order 120 of them.
EMD couldn't meet the delivery, so the New Haven wound up with 30 GP9s, supplemented by 15 Alco RS-11 and 15 FM H12-44. All were
steam generator equipped.

The GP9s were delivered with dynamic brakes and small fuel and water tanks. They were modified by the New Haven with additional water tanks
along the long hood behind the cab (a detail I added to the BLW/ZT GP9 as one of my first TSM tasks). They were used system wide on both mainline
branchline trains. I have photos of triple-headed GP9s on NH-PRR trains between New Haven and Boston.

RGF

[philmoberg]

 rfranzosa, on Jan 2 2009, 01:25 PM, said:

... Triples were rare, pairs were common on the shore line and singles New Haven to Springfield

The GP9s were originally intended to replace ALL New Haven road power, the Dumaine administration was going to order 120 of them.
EMD couldn't meet the delivery, so the New Haven wound up with 30 GP9s, supplemented by 15 Alco RS-11 and 15 FM H12-44. All were
steam generator equipped. ...

I tend to recall three FL-9s on certain through trains from Penn Station, mainly those carrying through sleepers, into the early-'60s. Since these didn't run in the middle of the day, they didn't tend to get photographed as much.

As to the boiler Geeps (and other hood units), the New Haven leaned toward a philosophy of dual-service diesel power from the DL-109s on forward. The big exception to this rule was the fleet of FAs. Apart from that, all first rate road power was boiler equipped as-delivered until the U-Boats and the Centuries at the very end. The railroad had a range of reasons why they did this, the most compelling of which was the relatively short length of the railroad. One of the big selling points of diesels was that they didn't have to undergo the extensive servicing of steam locomotives: the time thus saved would have enabled the railroad to get at least two turns a day out of most of its road power. Given that traffic was primarily passenger service during the day, and predominantly freight service during the night, the choice was obvious, particularly with the Shore Line limited to 79MPH. Even the FL-9s were delivered with a [third] jump seat in the cab, for the use of the head-end brakeman in freight service. -Phil

[philmoberg]

I've had some fun of my own with these :o ... -Phil

BTW: I'm in the process of [re]building a McGinnis set of SS Cars I'd put together for these locomotive before my system crashed, back in August. Some technical changes to the current version of 3DC should result in a somewhat enhanced set of cars from the original release.

[rfranzosa]

 philmoberg, on Jan 5 2009, 01:06 PM, said:

I've had some fun of my own with these :o ... -Phil

BTW: I'm in the process of [re]building a McGinnis set of SS Cars I'd put together for these locomotive before my system crashed, back in August. Some technical changes to the current version of 3DC should result in a somewhat enhanced set of cars from the original release.

Then I'll wait a bit before doing McGinnis, PC, MBTA reskins on those bad boys. :o

RGF

[Sandy River Tom]

Rick / Phil:

Now I'm a bit confused (nothing new there, though).

#1 I thought that the FL9s could ONLY run in or out of Grand Central, and could not run in or out of Penn Station,
because they only had the Pickup Shoes for the 600VDC 3rd-Rail at GCT and could not run on the 11,000 VAC
catenary in Penn Station. Yes, they did have small pantographs on the rear roof which I've read were used to
pickup overhead 3rd rails in GCT where there were long breaks in the standard 3rd-Rail at switches and crossovers.

#2 To add to my confusion, I recall seeing a photo of a pair of FL9 leading a passenger run across the HellGate Bridge
during a heavy snowstorm. Their destination was obviously Penn Station.

Puzzled in Preston . . . :o

[philmoberg]

 Sandy River Tom, on Jan 5 2009, 05:41 PM, said:

... Now I'm a bit confused ...

The FL-9s were equipped with a five-position third rail shoe, in order to operate on both the under-running (NYC) third rail and the more common over-running (PRR/LIRR) third rail. My impression is that they were more common in and out of GCT, but that's based only on what I saw in those days ( and those were rare occasions) and on the surviving photographs. My guess is that the railroad would have preferred to use electrics on the grades either side of the heck Gate Bridge, and in the East River Tunnels.

 NW_611, on Jan 5 2009, 03:54 PM, said:

The additional production of New Haven cars is always something nice to hear! ...

While I'm at it, what's the R/G/B for a reasonably fresh coat of Jade Green? :o -Phil