Take walk through three running cab units and hear four prime movers idling at the Tennessee Central Railway Museum in Nashville, TN. The tour starts with two ex-B&LE F7B and continues forward into E8A 6902, originally New York Central.
Back in 1993, I had a chance to get a ride in the Conrail Business train from Boston to Springfield and back. During the trip, I was invited up into the cab of the lead E8A. It required passing through the cab and then the engine compartment of the 2nd. unit and then passing through the lead unit's engine compartment to the cab all at track speed. It was very noisy and hot but well worth it and riding in the cab was a thrill.
The giant cirle on the floor is where a boiler for the steam heat for the passenger cars would have been, One of the locomotives still has it's boiler which is that big vertical gray thing wit the pipes jutting from it in front of the rear door
At 0:03 id hate to be the engineer trying to put that mu cable in there. That receptacle is pretty high although, there is no snowplow or anticlimbers to worry about that helps a lot.
I feel like trying to plug in the MU jumper is a pain on these older streamliners that haven't had MU receptacles installed on the sides near the MU hoses. Also, I wonder if there's any E8Bs still in working order that haven't been converted from twin 12-567s to a single 645E.
It would be nice to one day see a set of E units or F units (or both combined 😉) that still has the diaphragms intact....I wish I knew why every single operator seems to have ripped out the diaphragms on these units at some point during their service life. They were there to keep the crew safe while going between units with the train in motion (just like the gangway planks and chain ropes on road switchers). I guess they lost some of their relevance when shops added nose MU connections to A units...
If my math is correct, the generators put out about 2500 amps, correct me if I am wrong. I'm guessing the combined output of all three units is around 8000 HP.
The E8 was rated at 2250 hp. The F7 (there are two on this train) were 1,500 hp. There was also a GP7 on this train, also 1,500 hp. I don't know if there have been any modifications that have changed the ratings.
@@CameraBryan I couldn't remember exactly, I didn't look them up. Thanks. Nice video, I love trains, the E8 is my favorite. I fell in love at 5 when I got to ride in the cab.
Guessing by amps is misguided. These are neither constant current nor constant voltage generators. They are called "constant-kW." You can have as high as 800 volts or as low as 100 volts while outputting 1800 horsepower in both cases. The 600 volt warning stickers are the nominal operating voltage of the locomotives.
That's a rarity on older locomotives like this. I think some F units built for export to the Middle East had some from the factory. It's the norm on modern locomotives, though; they have to keep the electronics in the can cool, and the railroads have discovered that if they can keep cab windows closed they are paying less claims for hearing loss.
The cab units were originally equipped with a toilet in a back corner. Since this is a museum operation the engineer can always just go to a coach at a stop.
@@CameraBryan - In the case of a freight train you'd need a toilet; is it a flush type or just a dry hole? Would there be a sink to wash hands? How is the noise level in the cab at 80mph?
The old "Bulldog Nose" units were beautiful, for diesels at least.. but this video shows why they got rid of them. Imagine being an electrician working on those generators... what a pain in the ass it would be. Seems like it would be easier to just have the generators next to removable panels... so that's what they did. Ugly, but efficient.
