Nostalgia & History > Reading FM Train Master Question

I have a photo of a diagam for a proposed FM built slug unit to be mated in between  two Train Masters for hump service at Rutherford Yard. Information is missing. Anyone have any more information?

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Nothing to add but it's a curious looking sled/slug. Thanks for sharing.

No information...but you get a gold star for correctly spelling "Train Master".
/Ted

Very interesting slug. I wonder if by design it was supposed to be dynamic brake equipped also, which I assume is what the hump in the middle would be for. Or I guess it could be a fan housing for traction motors blowers but for low speed humping that seems a bit of overkill. 

I dunno but had it been built I bet it would drag everything but the yard office lol! 

A lot of ballast to reach 385,000 lbs.

This is certainly interesting, for a number of reasons.  Is there a title block on the dwg you could show ?  A date ?

-  As I recall in the 1967-68 time frame R'ford hump power was usually a pair of AS16's, such as 534/535, or one of the two TM's coupled to something else.   I don't recall triplets, but maybe I just never noticed.  So why would all this TE be needed, for loaded coal train sorting ?

-  The 'classic' dynamic braking wouldn't have been of any value at humping speeds -- would it ?

-  Why go to the trouble [ expense ] of shortening the frame, especially if you were going to then ballast the unit up to the weight of a full TM ? 

-  How would you wire up the traction motors of a 6 axle slug equally shared between two 6 axle units -- three strings of three traction motors in series per side ?

Yes, I know -- these are questions, not answers.....

With best regards, SZ

Edited to add:  When you wrote "FM built" you mean a new build, frame and all, from FM ?  Is this an FM drawing or a RDG drawing [ if you know ] ?




 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/23/19 19:52 by Steinzeit2.

Steinzeit2 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This is certainly interesting, for a number of
> reasons.  Is there a title block on the dwg you
> could show ?  A date ?
>
> -  As I recall in the 1967-68 time frame R'ford
> hump power was usually a pair of AS16's, such as
> 534/535, or one of the two TM's coupled to
> something else.   I don't recall triplets, but
> maybe I just never noticed.  So why would all
> this TE be needed, for loaded coal train sorting
> ?
>
> -  The 'classic' dynamic braking wouldn't have
> been of any value at humping speeds -- would it ?
>
> -  Why go to the trouble [ expense ] of
> shortening the frame, especially if you were going
> to then ballast the unit up to the weight of a
> full TM ? 
>
> -  How would you wire up the traction motors of a
> 6 axle slug equally shared between two 6 axle
> units -- three strings of three traction motors in
> series per side ?
>
> Yes, I know -- these are questions, not
> answers.....
>
> With best regards, SZ
>
>
>
>
>

Dynamic brakes on a hump locomotive totally depends on the hump it's assigned to.
Some humps are "downhill" humps, think West Colton, CA . The hump sets used there have and use dynamic braking.

PHall Wrote:

> Dynamic brakes on a hump locomotive totally
> depends on the hump it's assigned to.
> Some humps are "downhill" humps, think West
> Colton, CA . The hump sets used there have and use
> dynamic braking.

-  Sure, West Colton is well known for that -- but those are / were  SD38-2's, and dynamic braking had come a long way from the Train Master era.  Did the West Colton units have extended range db ?

-  The RDG units at Rutherford that were regularly assigned hump power in the '67-68 era, AS16's and a pair of TM's, did not have d/b -- though the RDG had locomotives of those types with db.  [ The TM's were ex-psgr units ].
    What makes you think either R'ford hump was "downhill" ? 

SZ

PS  Re your 6/15/19 post:  RDG SW1001's did have 21 pin MU as built;  CR converted them to 27.

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