Eastern Railroad Discussion > Using AI for railfanning

I haven't used AI (eg Co-Pilot or Chat/GPT) for any purpose but in response to a photo of an EL E8 hauling a freight on Easter years back posted on TO's Nostalgia Forum somebody asked if/how EL had converted its E8s for freight duties. So I Googled and manually sorted through the chaff of responses and found a link to a discussion at RYPN.ORG that answered the question in detail.

Subsequently I asked Windows AI tool Copilot: How did the erie lackawanna railroad convert its EMD E8 locomotives for freight service?
And lo and behold, Co-Pilot immediately came back with the word for word content of that RYPN.ORG link:

"The Erie Lackawanna Railroad undertook a program in the late 1960s to convert its EMD E8 locomotives for freight service. Here are the alterations made during this conversion:

• Steam Generators Removal: The steam generators were removed and kept as spares for the remaining units in passenger service. In their place, a weight block (usually a steel box filled with old brake shoes encased in concrete) was installed.
• Automatic Backward Transition: The locomotives were equipped with automatic backward transition, a feature standard on E9 locomotives.
• Traction Motor Modifications: The traction motors had their pinion gears changed to 15 teeth and were fitted with larger gearboxes.
• Wheel Set Changes: To accommodate the larger gearboxes, the wheel sets were changed from 36 inches to 38 inches (the truck could not accept 40-inch wheels). The new wheel sets featured 62-tooth bull gears.
• Brake Rigging Alterations: The brake rigging was adjusted to suit the wheel size change.
• Cab Heater Conversion: Since there was no longer a steam generator, the steam cab heaters were changed to hot water cab heat.
• MU Arrangement Modifications: Changes were made to the multiple unit (MU) arrangements to eliminate features related to the steam generator.

By 1975, the following E8A locomotives had been converted for freight service: 809, 810, 812, 813, 814, 815, 817, 818, 819, 820, 826, 827, 828, 832
The following E8A locomotives were not converted and remained in their original configuration: 811, 816, 821, 822, 823, 824, 825, 829, 830, 831, 8331.
These re-geared E8 locomotives served reliably in freight trains until the early years of Consolidated Railroad Corporation (Conrail)23.
It’s fascinating how these locomotives were adapted to continue their service in a different capacity! 
 
So maybe Ai tools represent the next generation in railfan query tools? Anybody else have experience applying Co-Pilot or Chat GPT to doing RR research?



Edited 10 time(s). Last edit at 04/01/24 12:41 by JPB.

I tried it for fun last year, but the AI still lacks the common sense that people have. I asked it, if I owned a small shortline that primarily switched flat-land industries, if it would be better to buy a GP38-2 or an AC4400CW. ChatGPT came back with, "Buy the AC44, as it is newer and more reliable, has higher horsepower, and higher tractive effort."

A paper-thin response for something that any railroader would tell you is laughably terrible advice.

AI is still "garbage in-garbage out", it's not intelligence, it's just a better way of regurgitating
available data.

Out 

I've made a few queeries on AI.   Why did Penn Central fail?   Compare a GG1 to a New Haven EP5.  Why did Chessie choose B&O over WM across the mountains.  What'a the difference between Russian and Thousand Island dressing?

Reportedly, the AI we use now on the internet may not be intelligent but it can lie and make up things as it goes. Maybe AI said that and lied! <LOL>

Victor Baird



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/01/24 17:01 by wabash2800.

wabash2800 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Reportedly, the AI we use now on the internet may
> not be intelligent but it can lie and make up
> things as it goes. Maybe AI said that and lied!
>
> Victor Baird

That is a problem I had with it; it sounded 100% confident and authoritative that *this* is the absolutely correct answer. In my earlier example, when I mentioned the tighter curve radii of the GP38-2 or the lack of turbolag or the near-instantaneous EMD powerplant, I had to fight with it to get it to finally acquiesce and "see" my point.

Steve Lehto, a lawyer on Youtube, recently did a segment about New York City using an AI chat to dispense information for small businesses about things like licensing and taxes.  It seems the AI was giving false and misleading advice, which is surprising given the limited scope of the city code.  It even gave different answers when multiple users asked the same question.  No thanks, I'll stick to plain search engines and make my own determination of the accuracy of the content.

The sad thing AI doesn't reference the author.    The information provided is almost entirely from Preston Cook whom posted the information to RYPN with lots of photos and anecdotal information.

The link is here

http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&amp;t=47934