Nostalgia & History > Joe Snopek Photo - CR 6801

Joe Snopek photographed Conrail 6801 in Springfield, Massachusetts on March 16, 1979.
Bob

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Nice roster photo of a CR patch unit.
Thanks for posting.
ALLEN

I hope some of the mechanical engineering folk see this post before it becomes too old.  This unit is equipped with a variation of the Alco Tri-Mount truck which was notorious for crappy riding quality and wrecking the track.  But why? This truck is fully equalized, has helical (coil) springs for both its (not it's) primary and secondary suspension and has hydraulic shocks on the secondary suspension. Sprung properly, the engines on which this truck rode should have at least been within acceptable limits. What do I know about this sort of thing?  I headed the gang that re-sprung, changed the swing hangers and many, many  other ancillary functions on the business car TAMALPAIS in 1999, under the direction of mechanical engineer Mark Bucol and the great Bugs, Jim Bruggere.  This was done to modify AT&SF #34's trucks to fit #33; prior to Mark Bucol's re-design they performed much like the Alco Tri-Mounts, e.g. throwing lamps across the room and other tricks.  Any comments would be welcome as I think Alco lost a lot of momentum with that truck; one wonders if some tweaks/retrofit might have helped it.