Eastern Railroad Discussion > So These 3 Admirals Walk Into a Bar...

Back in college, I had a buddy a few years older than me who had taken a job in procurement at the Pentagon. He couldn't talk much about the details of what he did, but he was quite outspoken about the overall atmosphere of the place. 

One of my favorite quotes from him was that the easiest way to generate a dozen contradictory opinions was to invite three navy admirals to sit around a conference table. 

That's come to mind in recent weeks as the NS intermodals that service the facility in Ayer, MA (22K and 23 K) have started running with rebuilt SD60E units with the home built "admiral cab". These units are evidently the first ones to be equipped with the specific positive train control system necessary to run the last few miles over MBTA track from Fitchburg into Ayer, MA at the east end of their run. They now lead almost every train, and matched sets of them are now becoming common. 

Geez, matched sets of anything are unusual, and sets of EMDs?  And it's not a GE leading?  Sign me up. 

So here we have a few pix of Admirals cooperating to move "biggie piggie" trains (often two miles plus in length) over Richmondville Hill in my neck of the woods. They all seem to working toward the same goal (but my buddy, an army guy through and through) would probably point out that at least one of them is always pointed backwards). 

You can ignore the auto racks in photo #1. There's an intermodal cut tucked in behind them. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/21 16:38 by march_hare.

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A super nice series, indeed!  Great winter scenes plus matched power sets.
Thnks for the excellent photo posting.
ALLEN

Great series of winter photos. Good info on the equipment as well.
t4p.

+ regardless, it's a funny title



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/21 11:52 by TCnR.

Photo 3 should be IOTD!!! Excellent photograph their!!

FYI....the NS-designed wide nose and cab installed on the SD60E's is called the "Crescent" cab. The NS-designed standard cab and low short hood replacement is what is called the "Admiral" cab.


Chris Toth
NSDash9.com

Great thread, thank you.

Conrail also made a point of dedicating power sets to its New England / B&A route.  That was the stomping ground for the C30-7A power for decades.  Maybe it's a Massachusetts thing?

And Conrail ran matches sets of SD80MAC's on the B&A as well.

Excellent shots and commentary.

Cheers,
Jonathan

#3 should be the NS calendar shot for Jan. 2021 that we'll never have...

Nice pics!!

Great pix, but sorry, 6900's are not admirals, they are SD60-E's with Currie cabs but not the back-slanted windshields.

Apologies to all for the misidentification.  I'd hear NS crews referring to the home built cabs as Admirals, hadn't checked to see if that was fully correct.

Pretty cool looking engine, regardless.