Re: streamlined noses
Author: Hot Water
Date: 07-16-2021 - 12:43
EMD Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The old streamlined cab units were better at
> bucking snow than hood units.
>
> Too bad EMD did not keep the tooling for
> manufacturing F-unit noses. Or did I read that
> stuff was destroyed in a fire?
Not destroyed in a fire, but all those jigs & fixtures were sent to scrap sometime in the early 1970s. We, in the Sales Engineering Dept. discovered that, when the Alaska RR wanted to purchase some sort of a GP40-2 with an "F Unit" nose/cab arrangement, and were willing to pay extra for it. The process was begun to design it and price it, and as the Sales Engineer for the Alaska RR, at that time, I also called a meeting with the Tool Engineering and Process Engineer departments. That's when we discovered that all the jigs & fixtures had jest been sent to Pielet Brothers Scrap Yard, in order to make additional room on the Cab Line Warehouse.
The end result was, we had to inform the Alaska RR management that we simply could no longer manufacture that beautiful "E & F Unit" rounded nose design, which blasted through snow so well.