Nostalgia & History > slugs

No, this isn't the sort of slugs that The Survivorman, or Bear Grylls eats on one of their shows on the Discovery channel.

No 1 is a through the windshield shot from the inside of my 18 wheeler when I was slowly rolling along in the TCS pit near Georgetown Texas. I was driving a Freightliner FLD at the time if anybody is curious about this bit of trivia. This is GRR slug S-1. S-1 was made in the Georgetown Railroad shops from a Baldwin switch engine, I think that it was a VO-1000.

No. 2 is a Union Pacific slug. I din't know the particulars about it. If anyone wants to know any of its details, then I recommend a visit to Don Strack's website, utahrails.net. I don't know how to provide a good link to it here. Just Google "utahrails.net" and the first link that Google provides will get you right into his home page. Don maintains a very informative website when it comes to details about the Union Pacific, I recommend a visit to it if the UP or any of its recent acquisition railroads are of interest to you. I just wanted to mention this here for anybody who might not already know of this resource, which I imagine not many railfans don't already know about utahrails.net.

Edit: I just went to utahrails and found the following facts about UP slug S303: S303 was renumbered to UPY 929 in 2002. It was rebuilt into a slug by Morrison-Knudson for UP in 1992. It was rebuilt from KCS GP30 #4119.
Con

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Good truck, but still a FreightShaker.

Portland & Western's pair, nose to nose, on their usual assignment, the Toledo Hauler. Also unusual is not having any other units on this train.

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Horny slugs no less.


TCS - git 'em

xtra1188w Wrote:

> S-1 was made in the Georgetown Railroad
> shops from a Baldwin switch engine, I think that
> it was a VO-1000.

According to Don Ross, S-1 was built from N&W U25B 8146 in 1980.

http://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/dr134.htm

I can't find any other confirmation online, but I'm pretty sure at least that S-1 didn't start life as a VO1000. Wes Carr has a broadside shot of S-1 coupled to an MP15 (about the same size as a VO1000) here:

http://www.trainweb.org/southwestshorts/grrside.html

The slug is longer than the switcher, and has Type-B road trucks to boot.

jst3751 Wrote:
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> Good truck, but still a FreightShaker.


True, but after having driven a VolvoWhite for 12 years, that Freightshaker seemed to be a big improvement! Freightliners have had their shortcomings, but this one seemed to have overcome a couple of problems that older Freightliners seemed to chronically suffer from. I didn't have any problem with the doors not latching shut, and staying shut when going down the big road, neither did a door window suddenly fall to the bottom of the door without any warning. I used to have such problems with older Freightliners. When you drive for someone else besides yourself, you have to drive what they tell you to drive. I tried being an O-O, but that has shortcomings of its own. I finally decided that the best thing is to drive for a private carrier for several reasons. I reckon that since this isn't Truckorders.com, I'd better shut down this line of thinking here.

Con

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> xtra1188w Wrote:
>
> > S-1 was made in the Georgetown Railroad
> > shops from a Baldwin switch engine, I think
> that
> > it was a VO-1000.
>
> According to Don Ross, S-1 was built from N&W U25B
> 8146 in 1980.
>
> http://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/dr134.htm
>
> I can't find any other confirmation online, but
> I'm pretty sure at least that S-1 didn't start
> life as a VO1000. Wes Carr has a broadside shot
> of S-1 coupled to an MP15 (about the same size as
> a VO1000) here:
>
> http://www.trainweb.org/southwestshorts/grrside.ht
> ml
>
> The slug is longer than the switcher, and has
> Type-B road trucks to boot.


Maybe I should just post pictures and let someone else write the text for the pictures. While I've never studied about the origin of S-1 in depth, I worked in or out of where S-1 was used over the course of about 25 or so years. The GRR's first diesel locomotives were mostly exMKT Bladwin VO-1000s, with another one of them having come from from the Tex Mex RR. I was told by a GRR employee several years back that the S-1 had been built from an ex VO-1000, but?........

Con

xtra1188w Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> True, but after having driven a VolvoWhite for 12
> years, that Freightshaker seemed to be a big
> improvement! Freightliners have had their
> shortcomings, but this one seemed to have overcome
> a couple of problems that older Freightliners
> seemed to chronically suffer from. I didn't have
> any problem with the doors not latching shut, and
> staying shut when going down the big road, neither
> did a door window suddenly fall to the bottom of
> the door without any warning. I used to have such
> problems with older Freightliners. When you drive
> for someone else besides yourself, you have to
> drive what they tell you to drive. I tried being
> an O-O, but that has shortcomings of its own. I
> finally decided that the best thing is to drive
> for a private carrier for several reasons. I
> reckon that since this isn't Truckorders.com, I'd
> better shut down this line of thinking here.
>
While I have not driven in what, coming up on 9 years now, desial still runs through my veins.