Smr Simple!

While my wife was at her doctors appointment I had to drop off some junk at the scrap yard in Mt. Vernon Illinois. Sitting there on the tracks coming out of the scrap yard sat this beautiful little blue and white switcher! I had brought my camera along because the Alco Engine Repair Shop sat right next door and I planned on getting some pictures.

As I was taking the first one, a truck with the scrap yard markings on it pulled up. I thought, "Oh no, it's 'get off the property' time...". The driver opens his window and says, "Take all the pictures you want. You can climb into the cab and take some too, just don't touch the controls.". Oh the joy I felt!

Research later found this to be a GE45T II-B. A tag next to the manufacturers plate shows it once belonged to the Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company and gives the Asset No. Some of the information on the manufactures plate can be read, but not much. I plan on going back and getting a bit more info on it. If anyone wants any closer pictures, or pictures of specific areas, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

The Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company came about thru a merger in 1934 and existed until 1982

As you can see from the cab view, some of the gauges are original and some are rigged.

This Wiki site gives some info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GE_45-ton_switcher

This unit has the later chain drive (beside the wheel on the side with the brake hose) as you can see from the front picture...at least I think that's the front.......

This would be a nice little engine to have in the game for those little 1-3 car short runs.....

Here is an interesting little tidbit from the Wiki site:

Facts to Know

During the dieselization of railroads, steam firemen were being replaced by automatic fuel systems in the new diesels. In order to keep these men in work, the Unions and the railroads agreed that any locomotive weighing greater than 44 tons would need to be operated by two workers at all times. In retaliation, the railroads demanded from General Electric that they build a new locomotive, which weighed - of course - just barely 44 tons.

In two of the pictures you can see some blue fittings on the track...some kind of blockers?

(ignore the date, it was May 23, 2008)

cool snaps.

Neat engine!

snoopy55 wrote:... In two of the pictures you can see some blue fittings on the track...some kind of blockers?

Great set of pics, that was fun.
Since the track is not electrified, those blue boxes are probably part of the track detection circuits for a nearby crossing signal.

As for front or rear, that is usually considered as the normal direction of travel (operator in normal position is facing front). In your pictures, the seat is reversed to be facing backward, to the rear -- very awkward to operate in that position, btw.
Horns usually face forward, smokestacks are to the rear (if there is only one), and tubes for tool storage, extra knuckle, loose chains, etc., are usually on the rear deck. Most locos have the front marked with "F" & rear with "R", see link, while cars use "A" & "B" for the same purpose. In addition, builder's plates seem to be on the Left side, maybe just tradition?
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 45&nseq=30

That's why this one is so hard to really figure. First off, with over 50 years under its belt, any F and R have been long painted over. Wiki points out that it has 2 150 HP Cummins diesel engines, so there are two stacks. A close look at the seat shows you that even if it could be turned the other way, you could not get into it. Any storage is under the engineers seat (see the second pic, the two doors on the outside under where the seat is)

The last thing is that this little bugger runs from a large scrap yard and moves cars to three different tracks going thru Mt. Vernon, Illinois, which has more than three railroads running thru it, so it really has no certain way to travel. It goes out with a load facing one way, and comes back facing the same way.

I recently got some pictures of a OHIO self-propelled crane. I also have shots of the Alco Works in Mt. Vernon, which has slugs, and engines from as far away as Korea for rework and repaint. I'll work on getting them posted.

snoopy55 wrote:... A close look at the seat shows you that even if it could be turned the other way, you could not get into it.
...
so it really has no certain way to travel. It goes out with a load facing one way, and comes back facing the same way....

Well, the seat IS reversed. When in the correct position, it can be adjusted along a track fore & aft.
The second point is true of many switcher AND road engines, but that's not what I was talking about. Use the control stand as a reference, left hand on brake, right on throttle (long one). "Normal" position being the one the controls were designed to fit, guages visible, things like that. I've run engines sitting the back way (longest was 23 miles at 14-15 mph -- THAT was rough) & it's no picnic.
The F & R, horn direction, etc. was to help give pointers for when anyone comes upon one of these little gems.