Eastern Railroad Discussion > Altoona Helpers

I saw a set of SD60 Admiral Cab rebuilds working as helpers on the Horseshoe Curve webcam. Is this the beginning of a replacement plan or just a temproary fill in.

EdP Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I saw a set of SD60 Admiral Cab rebuilds working
> as helpers on the Horseshoe Curve webcam. Is this
> the beginning of a replacement plan or just a
> temproary fill in.

Are you sure they were working as helpers? If you only saw them as light engines, that was probably the "work train" they've been running over the hill to test the newly activated signal circuitry. I observed this movement on May 6 with two of the Neanderthals.

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/16/19 07:31 by toledopatch.

They were most likely helpers. They have been starting to try them on for size here of late, but, not sure if it’s a permanent move or not. They actually had a pair of 80MACs as rear helpers on an oil train the other night. Usually only see that on the South Fork coal drags.

Posted from iPhone

Saw a pair of them on the rear of a 4 pack on a loaded coal train on the Curve cam the other day.

When we went to Altoona it was probably the busiest since late Conrail days a few weeks ago.   Do they maybe not have enough helper sets right now?   

They were on the rear of an eastbound coal train along with a set of SD40 E's.

The "SD60" rebuilds are actually SD60-E's, and do not have Admiral cabs.  Those are being applied only to SD40-2's, GP40-2's, and GP38-2's.

Were they DPUs with a single helper set tacked on?   Were the SD40Es you saw behind the power in question, or directly against the train?

-Tom

"Crescent Cabs"

Bill Miller
Galt, ON

They are running as a pair(s) of helpers on some trains, I've been seeing them on the Cresson Cam
Go

Does anyone think that they will begin using DPU's instead of manned pushers? Maybe that's why they are using the SD60E's? A thought. Unfortunately I'm sure someday the manned pushers will probably vanish :-( That's what helps make that area magical!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/17/19 18:59 by SNY1337.

I doubt the manned helpers will disappear on this segment altogether.   Pretty much every train needs helpers outside of short van trains and a few empty hopper trains. 

WLE2679 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I doubt the manned helpers will disappear on this
> segment altogether.   Pretty much every train
> needs helpers outside of short van trains and a
> few empty hopper trains. 

DP's replacing manned helpers might not make sense here if this segment of trackage is the only place NS needs the extra units/horsepower on a trains' route.  Using DP's takes up a lot of extra locomotives unless there are many places a particular train might need them.  In the case of Altoona, it probably makes more sense to use manned helpers since NS gets a lot of flexibility use out of them and its the onlyl mountain grade.

It's because they recently reassigned the 6326-6333 out of the Altoona Helper pool. So they are down 4 sets as compared to a little over a month ago, and they are grabbing whatever back to back sets are available to use as helpers to make up for the loss of those units. PSR at its best.