Nostalgia & History > Personal victories. Putting four on the front, middle, or back.

Every photographer railfan I ever met had personal favorite scenarios when it came to aiming lens at train. Obviously the power itself, location for sure,  I also met people who liked to photograph freight cars of all designs, wheel arrangements, emblems of different railroads, only something unusual in general, only rare power, etc. etc! My favorite trains always had four units. Most that I saw in my active years generally had two or three units on the head end. I considered four a bonus, so I mentally set this benchmark as a winner when I was out and about. No rhyme or reason, just a fun deviation from the "norm."Naturally the four plus combos were home runs, and just pure nirvana, but four was my thing. The reason for the rambling today is this four unit memory blitz I had while scanning the latest batch of gold. Enjoy!

three different ways to score four

top...westbound just east of Argentine Yard Kansas City, 1973

middle...on the rear...Williamsport helper on Western Maryland 1972

bottom...Power getting ready to tie on to its westbound at Sayre, 1974

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/22 04:04 by Roadjob.

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On the other side of the country

top...westbound on Cajon, 1981

middle...eastbound on Rio Grande just west of Helper Utah, 1977

bottom...in the middle. The SP was the 4 unit king in my travels on the west end of the country

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD

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Three from the color era

top...even early CSX was interesting. Westbound near Falls Cut tunnel on Sand Patch

middle...nothing better than Santa Fe on Cajon

bottom...except maybe Santa Fe on Tehachapi

Bill Rettberg
Bel Air, MD

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Very nice series.   Thank you.

All very nice photos, especially both the Western Maryland and the CSX on the old B&O for sure.
John in White Marsh, Maryland

Very nice shots, Bill!

RC Lundgren
Elgin, TX

Picture 2.  First time I have seen so many air horns on an engine.

Regarding the horns, yes, a lot of horns! Don't know much about WM but suspect the F units pictured originally came with single note horns like Wabco E2 or Leslie
A-200s facing one in each direction.  This was common on most older F units on many roads. As the single note horns began to fail over time, many roads simply plugged 
the airline for the second horn and installed a multi chime horn like an M3, M5, or  Leslie horn.
The Nathan salesman must of visitied WM and convienced them that multi chime M5s would work best with two per unit. I know of no other railroads that used more than one M5
per locomotive. Wonder if there were two horn cords, one for each horn?
Photo is the best capture of this I've seen.
Regards, Jim Evans, Five Chime Consultants

Another nice set Bill, I had a similar fascination with "expanded" consists only I had to set the bar at 3 units growing up in flat Detroit. Seemed like everything was 1 or 2 units, PC/CR, DTI/GTW, Chessie, only NW regularly ran 3 or more units. Four on any road would be a real treat, and I once saw an NW freight with 7 units so naturally I nearly fell over...

JG

Very enjoyable series!

Larry