Nostalgia & History > just another SP . . .

.   .   .   in JAN '73, just another westbound SP was passing through Colton, CA.
JB

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An interesting mix of power.

Quintessential Espee.  Notice the different painting details in the locos and the swapped out door on the second.  Thanks for posting!

Timothy

Nice shot, JB!

Randy Lundgren

SPDRGWfan Wrote:
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> An interesting mix of power.

The view demonstrates the two versions of the U33C roof radiator transition from the top of the engine area. The closest U33C has the later style which basically has no transition and simply has the flat front at the top of the radiator wings where it transitions to the engine compartment. The rear U33C is from SP's first order of U33C's (8600-8619?) and had the flared transition on top of the hood from the engine area to the wide radiator wings on top.

Those U33C's certainly didn't work out well for the SP long term. You'd think they would have figured out by the time they had 50 of them on the roster that they did not compare well to the EMD options but no the SP had to buy 212 of them. Very few were operating beyond 10 years in age and a number of those years were spent in storage/maintenance lines.

Interesting interloper in the middle of this consist, thanks for posting.  

About Milwaukee's comments:  The U33C was something of a dog.  Almost everyone retired them when the lease was up.  Even power short BN got rid of theirs after 15 years.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA
 

heatermason Wrote:
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> Quintessential Espee.  Notice the different
> painting details in the locos and the swapped out
> door on the second.  Thanks for posting!
>
> Timothy

Not seeing any "swapped out" doors on that second unit. Which doors are you referring to?

The first set of doors with the Large "SO" painted on them.
Took me a few minutes to spot that for myself!

James R.(Jim) Baker
Whittier, CA

JimBaker Wrote:
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> The first set of doors with the Large "SO" painted
> on them.
> Took me a few minutes to spot that for myself!

You mean the first two that have the white "DANGER 600 VOLTS" labels above the S and O.
The other U33C in the consist has them too. Those are the doors that give access to the main alternator.

No, look at the size difference on the "S" and O", they larger on the first of the two U33s.

Out 

callum_out Wrote:
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> No, look at the size difference on the "S" and O",
> they larger on the first of the two U33s.
>
> Out 

No, they're the same size. Blow up the picture and see for yourself. The white placards are right on top of the letters.

.   .   .   

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The blown up photo allows me to spot another apparent change on from the early U33C to the later model. There look to be 8 battery box doors on the early version and only 6 on the later version. Did standard battery size change from the late 60's to the early 70's? If not, what would have caused that change?

Milwaukee Wrote:
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> The blown up photo allows me to spot another
> apparent change on from the early U33C to the
> later model. There look to be 8 battery box
> doors on the early version and only 6 on the later
> version. Did standard battery size change from
> the late 60's to the early 70's? If not, what
> would have caused that change?

GE made a number of production changes during the production run of the U33C's.
Usually to make fabrication easier or to lower costs. But sometimes it was part of a fix to a problem that earlier units had.

Quite a neat consist and nice photo.
Brian Stevens

Milwaukee Wrote:

> Did standard battery size change from
> the late 60's to the early 70's? If not, what
> would have caused that change?

The doors under the cab on the fireman's side of the U33C weren't battery boxes.  They gave access to the electrical cabinet, which was under the cab rather than behind it.  The batteries were on the engineer's side under the raised walkway behind the cab.