Nostalgia & History > The sign says don't do that [MILW]

GE Locomotive #10207 at Soudan, Montana. Inspector Sole, (unknown) Foreman, Chief Inspector R. Wende.

Wende looks a little stiff; he was seriously injured the previous year during construction and off work for three months before returning to limited duty. In a report to the insurance company on his return, it was stated that the extent of his injuries would have kept a normal man off work for far longer. It seems in this photo that he is rather enjoying himself.

As to the caption: note the sign the foreman is sitting on.

Picture is from the W.S.H. Hamilton Electrification Photos, Historic Events [Bob Harris Collection].

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In front of the gentlemen seems to be a base for another pantograph. It is insulted fron the car body with ceramic and wood components.

Am I right?

Marty Bernard

This is a pretty incredible photo. By the time I started in 1969 getting onto the roof of a locomotive required dropping the pantograph and grounding it to the carbody. Any failure to do that would result in disciplinary action by the company.

The carbody structure was grounded to the rail, the pantograph was isolated from the body on tall insulators. It was safe to stand on the roof if the pan was up but if you touched the pan or one of the bus wire connections between units the results were normally fatal.

If the pan shoes were hung up in the trolley and the pan was pulled backwards the knuckle joint in the pan would contact the roof of the unit resulting in catastrophic failure to the pan and two large holes in the roof. Smokin'!

If the loco was struck by lightning the bolt would go straight to ground perhaps blowing a few breakers with no serious damage to the unit or the crew.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

MartyBernard Wrote:
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> In front of the gentlemen seems to be a base for
> another pantograph. It is insulted from the car
> body with ceramic and wood components.
>
> Am I right?

You are right. But it turns out that it is just the base. I discover from other photos that the GE company only supplied one pan instead of two for the first units delivered.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/14 00:24 by lwilton.

The mystery reveled: This was a test train on August 24, 1916. It seems quite likely that the wire is dead since we can see a steam engine pulling the boxcab. Another photo shows Assistant Electrical Engineer Wade is also on top of the boxcab, trailing profile tracings of the line. Obviously they are looking for problems.

I'm quite surprised by two things: 1, that it is as late as August 1916 and they don't have power on the wire, and 2, that as late as that the boxcabs only seem to have one pan installed each. There was no indication in any of the letters I've read from the electrification department that GE would be delivering the units with a single pan, but all of the early pictures only show one. It is also surprising that this could be august of 1916 without power, since they had borrowed power on sections of the line almost a year before that. There must have been considerable problems over the 1915-1916 winter that I haven't come to in my readings yet.

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I have seen later photos of units on the Coast with two pans but those were rare. I don't ever remember seeing pan mounts on the roofs of any of the units in service in the 1970s.

Since the locomotives were combinations of units in sets of two, three and four which had bus wires connecting all the units multiple pans on single units seems to be overkill. There is also the danger of the lead pan getting fouled in the overhead and tearing out the trailing pan with it. On a multiple unit locomotive both front and rear pans could be controlled from the lead locomotive so both could be up for high draw or frosty conditions.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

Each UNIT of the two-unit sets had one pantograph, so, there were two pantographs on the complete two unit locomotive.

Following are some excerpts from the January 1, 1917 engineers manual, revised January 1, 1924: [I've added some notes, in brackets]

46. One pantograph located on the roof of the locomotive, for collecting current from trolley wire in normal operation. The pantographs are raised by air pressure acting on pistons which operate cam shafts which put tension on the two raising springs. On each side of the pantograph frame located diagonally across from each other are the two balancing springs. With the air cut off, the balancing springs should have enough tension so that a pull of 5 lbs. will raise the pantograph. With the air pressure applied the raising springs should be set so that it will require no more than 35 lbs. to pull the pantograph down from the trolley wire. The friction in pantograph working parts should be low enough so that when rising slowly the pantograph will exert a force of 25 lbs. or more as measured by a spring scale.

Between the copper contact strips on pantograph shoes should be kept greased only with special pantograph grease. If any one copper strip is badly worn, the shoe should be changed before using this pantograph. In changing shoes it should be remembered that when the weight of one is removed from a pantograph with normal setting, it may rise unexpectedly to the trolley wire with no air pressure applied. Spare shoes are carried on roof of locomotive.

The shoes are attached to the pantographs by mean of aluminum rocker castings made weak purposely so that when an obstruction is met these casting break and let the shoes loose thereby saving the whole pantograph from being wrecked. ... For normal operation only one pantograph should be used. When pantograph flashes badly and trolley wire is in good condition, the flashing may be due to bad pantograph. In this case, the second pantograph should be raised and the damaged pantograph lowered. When flashing at the pantograph is due to frost or sleet on the trolley wire, both pantographs should be used.

When leaving a locomotive for a time, like when going to lunch, pantographs must be lowered to avoid dropping away from the trolley wire and burning it. ... The head pantograph should be used when possible. On split units equipped with two pantographs the back pantograph must be used if possible. ... Whenever either one or both pantographs or trolley poles are up, no one should go on the roof of the locomotive ...

47. The two pantograph operating valves [In each cab] have but one handle which is removable and should be in the possession of a man going on the roof of locomotive for any reason. [Each cab could control both the pantograph on that locomotive and the one on the other cab unit. Three and 4 unit consists only had two pantographs - there were none on middle units.] [Also, the pantograph operating valve, called a "key", was the same tool as used to open the high voltage electrical cabinet, so pans had to be locked down to open the cabinet. Only one key was provided per locomotive consist.]

-John



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/14 11:59 by LarryDoyle.

The line power might be turned off for these tests. Soudan is the first station east of Alberton where the train photo was taken. Just east of Soudan there is a deep manmade fill over 9 Mile Creek and the trolley poles were set into this fill material. Perhaps as the subsidence occurred in the fill material the poles shifted a bit and trolley alignment needed to be checked. Just speculation. Later on the MILW would have the two gas electric "Troubleshooter" cars for inspections like this.

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>> In front of the gentlemen seems to be a base for another pantograph. It is insulted from the car body with ceramic and wood components.
>> Am I right?

>You are right. But it turns out that it is just the base. I discover from other photos that the GE company only supplied one pan instead of two for the first units delivered.

The near insulators support the frame for the hooks which held down the trolley pole (the hooks are visible in the pic); the four sets of far insulators are for the trolly pole's spring base, which hasn't been installed yet. The sole purpose of the pole was to pump up the main reservoir so the pantograph could raise.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/14 12:52 by EtoinShrdlu.

The camera has foreshortened the perspective.

The gentlemen are seated on the air vent housings close to the center of the locomotive.

The insulators in front of them are for the trolley pole base, and the pole is not installed on this unit.

The insulators nearest the camera are for the hooks upon which the trolley pole would be set when drawn down.

-John

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Thanks John!

For those of you interested in early MILW history, a large number of photos of units, substations, and early commissioning runs can be found here:

https://milwaukeeroadarchives.com/Electrification/HamiltonPhotos/HamiltonPhotosHistoricEvents.htm

This includes several more pictures related to the ones posted here.