Louver-count

So here I am last Sunday morning (June 8, 2008) quietly viewing my Pentrex old U-boat video.
“The way to distinguish a U30C from a U23C,” the announcer said; “is the number of doors on the carbody side.”
“A U23 has only six doors (V12), and a U30 has eight (V16).”
“Got that?” I said to my wife in the kitchen.
Memories of the GP7 versus GP9 controversy; that only a true railfan could kerreckly distinguish a GP9 from a GP7.
They looked alike but many GP9s were built with dynamic-brakes, which required a large blister atop the carbody with its own fan.
So that was how I distinguished a GP7 from a GP9, but it wasn’t reliable, since some GP9s were built without dynamic-brakes (no blister).
More reliable was the dreaded louver-count; that a GP9 had more louvers than a GP7.
It got so obscure my friend Chip at Transit, also a railfan, memorized all the class-numbers of Conrail’s locomotives; e.g. 6025-6049 was a General Electric C40-8.
For crying out loud!
All I ever cared about was pedal-to-the-metal, throttle-to-the-roof, assaulting-the-heavens.
I was standing trackside next to Norfolk Southern (the old Nickel Plate) in Angola, N.Y., where a road crosses the tracks — waiting for restored Norfolk & Western steam-engine #611 on a railfan excursion.
Norfolk Southern is right next to Conrail (now CSX) there, and a Conrail freight was approaching the grade-crossing.
Approaching the crossing is slightly up a grade, so the engineer had the diesels in Run-8, wide-open, assaulting-the-heavens.
I can’t remember what they were, but that “assaulting-the-heavens” image remains in my mind clear as a bell.
Back in the middle-to-late ‘60s General Motors’ ElectroMotive Division (EMD) introduced an entire series of railroad diesel-locomotives based on their basic GP40 model.
And the GP40 was an upgrade of the GP35. The GP35 had two large fans on top with a single small fan in between. That smaller fan is the unit originally installed on all early GM diesels.
But the 3,000 horsepower GP40 needed more ventilation, so it has three large fans (no small fans); whereas the GP35 gets by with only two large fans and that single small fan.
So I could distinguish a GP40 from a GP35 per the fans.
The SD iterations of the GP-model (six versus four axles) were the same way.
So I could distinguish an SD40 from an SD35.
And then there was the SD45 version, essentially an SD40, but with a V20 engine instead of a V16 (3,600 horsepower instead of 3,000).
They needed even more radiator-cooling, so had flaring on the carbody end.
An SD45 was a slam-dunk to identify, but apparently the long crankshafts broke due to frame-flexing.
But as the GM Dash-2 version debuted in the ‘70s, they came to look more identical.
Plus there were variations for different railroads; e.g. the tunnel-motors with different air-intakes that don’t constrict in tunnels.
I lost interest. It was becoming impossible to distinguish one locomotive from another.
And I didn’t care anyway — not when “assaulting-the-heavens” was what mattered.
“The way to distinguish a U30C from a U33C,” said the video-announcer; “is that the U33C has a carbody two inches longer than a U30C.” (Or something as silly as that.)
Finger Lakes Railway has (or had????????) only one U-boat, #2201, a U23B (I think — it has the newer trucks). It’s also their only loco in the old Lehigh-Valley Cornell-red colors.
So I’d know it if I saw it.
I ain’t countin’ doors.

“Pentrex” is a marketer (and producer) of railroad videos. I have a large railfan video collection, and most are “Pentrex.”

The U-Boat was General Electric’s first attempt to market a general diesel-electric freight locomotive after splitting with Alco (American Locomotive Company in Schenectady, long out of business). At that time (1960), most diesel-electric railroad locomotives were from General-Motors’ ElectroMotive Division (EMD). —Now GE dominates the railroad locomotive market, and EMD is playing catch-up. Railfans nicknamed them U-Boats following GE’s “U” nomenclature. “U” stood for Utility.

“Geep” is the nickname given to EMD GP road-switchers (four axles). “Covered-Wagon” is the nickname given to full cab-units: e.g. F-units by EMD, FAs by Alco. SD (“Special-Duty”) are the EMD six-axle road-switchers. Four-axle road-switchers (EMD or GE) are no longer available.

RE: “Dynamic-brakes......” —The locomotive traction-motors are turned into generators, and the current generated is expended in giant toaster-grids atop the locomotive. Doing this results in a braking action on the locomotive.

“Transit” equals Regional Transit Service, the transit-bus operator in Rochester, NY, where I drove transit-bus for 16&1/2 years (1977-1993). My stroke October 26, 1993 ended that.

“Conrail” is a government amalgamation of east-coast railroads that went bankrupt pretty much at the same time as Penn-Central, a merger of the Pennsylvania Railroad and New York Central. Conrail included other bankrupt east-coast railroads, like Erie-Lackawanna and Lehigh Valley; but eventually went private as it became more successful. Conrail has since been broken up, sold to CSX Transportation Industries (railroad) and Norfolk Southern railroad. CSX got mainly the old New York Central routes, and NS got the old PRR routes.

“Nickel Plate” is the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, called the “Nickel Plate” long ago by a New York Central executive because it was so competitive. The railroad renamed itself the “Nickel Plate.” Norfolk & Western Railroad bought the Nickel Plate years ago, and N&W has since merged with Southern Railway, to become Norfolk Southern. Nickel Plate never actually attained New York city; it stopped at Buffalo.

“Restored Norfolk & Western steam-engine #611” is a 4-8-4 steam-locomotive restored for railfan excursions — since retired. The train I was waiting for was running west out of Buffalo. We rode behind it once. It is preserved at Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke, Va.; the only engine of that series remaining. It was a pinnacle of side-rod steam locomotive development. #611 was built in 1950 at Norfolk & Western’s Roanoke shops.

Maximum fuel-delivery on a railroad diesel-electric locomotive is “Run-8;” one of eight progressive fuel meterings from “one” to “eight.”

“EMD” is ElectroMotive Division of General Motors, GM’s manufacturer of railroad diesel-locomotives. Most railroads used EMD when they dieselized; although many now use General-Electric railroad diesel-locomotives.

The “GM Dash-2” locomotives had updated solid-state electronics.