Interesting comments about the 324 by SP5103. According to the Trains mag article, the 324 was re-turboed after the fire. In any event it is a turbo charged unit now. You can see roof patches where the roots blown exhaust stacks went out through the roof. We haven't had any problems with it throwing oil, starting fires, etc, and it seems to be a decent puller. We finally got the sanders working and I am told that this settled the slipping issues nicely. I have run it some, but not with a heavy train.

The biggest problem the 324 has is this curious quirk; if it is MUed with other units, the throttle effectively has only 4 positions; 2,4,6, & 8. 1,3,5, & 7 jump to the next higher even position. Furthermore, it corrupts all the other units in the string and afflicts them the same way! This just isn't acceptable. Only happens when in MU; the throttle is fine when it is run as a single unit. We are wondering is maybe this is why the DMVW got rid of the 324.

The 324 is on short term lease to EWG and presumably will go back to Western Rail when the 1617 goes back in service.