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Re: More, more, more: SP Alco Centuries
Author: OPRRMS
Date: 12-09-2010 - 09:18

George Andrews Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Most of the Alco Centuries had been recently
> shopped at the time of Steve's photos. Espee
> converted them into 'Super Switchers' by
> eliminating electrical transition and unhooking
> the dynamic brakes. Since the units were
> renumbered into the switcher series, they were
> also repainted. As these units were mostly captive
> to yards after rebuilding,( West Colton, Houston,
> Eugene ), they didn't acquire the layers of road
> dirt of most Espee diesels. Being close to wash
> racks was a plus also.

Actually, transition wasn't elminated, just blocked so the units would be held in Series. This is similar to what's done on conventional switchers; for example, SP's SW1500s and MP15s had (still have) a position on the Service Selector that allowed the engineer to select SERIES HOLD. There was a badge plate attached to the control stand in the ALCos that read 25 MPH MAX SPEED (or something similar; my memory is kind of fuzzy at this late date) that was intended to remind the engineer of them behind held in Series. Apparently it was a simple task to revert them to making transition, and a number of the LA-assigned units had that done. Not all were done, however, and there was (at least) one incident where a flash-over occurred when one of the units got up to transition speed, attempted to make transition, but failed.

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Subject Written By Date/Time (PST)
  More, more, more: SP Alco Centuries Steve Sloan 12-08-2010 - 09:33
  Re: More, more, more: SP Alco Centuries J 12-08-2010 - 13:51
  Re: More, more, more: SP Alco Centuries LPNGANDY 12-08-2010 - 18:09
  Re: More, more, more: SP Alco Centuries George Andrews 12-08-2010 - 18:23
  Re: More, more, more: SP Alco Centuries LPNGANDY 12-09-2010 - 05:36
  Re: More, more, more: SP Alco Centuries OPRRMS 12-09-2010 - 09:18
  Re: More, more, more: SP Alco Centuries OPRRMS 12-09-2010 - 08:57
  Re: More, more, more: SP Alco Centuries LPNDuke 12-09-2010 - 10:20
  Re: More, more, more: SP Alco Centuries LPNGANDY 12-09-2010 - 18:07
  Re: More, more, more: SP Alco Centuries LPNDuke 12-11-2010 - 13:11
  Re: More, more, more: SP Alco Centuries LPNGANDY 12-12-2010 - 18:51
  Re: More, more, more: SP Alco Centuries LPNGANDY 12-13-2010 - 08:10


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