| qman,
Does this consist look familiar? See attached. I may have told this story on the list before and if so, I apologize. While the GN units were balancing horsepower hours, the GN was also trading similar units into EMD La Grange for new locomotives. While in Clyde Shop, one of the "cream puffs" was inadvertently ( or based on qman's description, they thought that was the best disposition!) sent with a group of trade ins units to La Grange. Nobody discovered the error until it was too late. The scrapped cream puff was credited to the GN on their next order.
I don't have a record of where I shot the photo of the GN units. Does anyone on the list know. It could be La Crosse. If the photo is stripped by Yahoo, it should show up in the Photostream section on the group web page.
Bill Barber Gravois Mills, MO
Mon Mar 24, 2014 8:21 am (PDT) . Posted by:GN freight units at Clyde were a part of the landscape in the 60's. This came about as a result of an agreement between the Q and the GN that allowed Q E units to operate into Havre to eliminate the time consuming chore of swapping power in St. Paul Union Depot. In order to equalize locomotive mileage between the two carriers the GN placed some of its "PIME" freight power in a pool to run off the mileage incurred by the Q E units. These "cream puffs" were, I believe, towed in DEAD from the ore fields in order to fill the needs of the equalization pool. Trains 97 and 88 were plagued with these escapees from the torch for years !!! An FT A unit tried to kill me at Dugan Rd. Xing early one morning when it suffered a MASSIVE crankcase explosion,. It failed !!!!
Usually, five unit sets were assigned to this pool and were rotated out of the pool as Clyde Diesel Shop machinists performed their miracles and got most of them running. There was one four unit set that I for had several trips, over the span of one or two months, in which one of the B units had suffered a catastrophic mechanical failure sometime in its distant past. Its engine room was cluttered with items that were once part of the prime mover and rust covered everything in the engine room !! Every unit assigned to this pool had the filthiest engine rooms of any power I'd ever experienced. I will say, however, Frisco power came in a close second !!!!!
qman
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