From what I understand is some early Union Pacific GE U-25-B had overhead throttles. Did any other road have these type of throttle? And can anyone guess what GE's logic was to install these obscure type of throttle over the by then pretty much standard AAR type. What mechanical advantage was the thinking?
Thanks, Chuck
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Couldn't fall and accidently engage it? Save on wire? Some airplanes had it? Just guessin
Are you planning on mounting a "Z" to the ceiling now?
..
From what I understand is some early Union Pacific GE U-25-B had overhead throttles. Did any other road have these type of throttle? And can anyone guess what GE's logic was to install these obscure type of throttle over the by then pretty much standard AAR type. What mechanical advantage was the thinking?
Thanks, Chuck
Frisco also had some early U25bs with the overhung throttles. Actually they weren't as bad as the later U25bs with the three-foot sixteen-notch throttles way down in front of the engineer. Evidently nobody at GE figured that the unit would ever be used for backing up or switching.
EdKing
Couldn't fall and accidently engage it? Save on wire? Some airplanes had it? Just guessin
Are you planning on mounting a "Z" to the ceiling now?..
Maybe, someone thought it was "cool."
Rusty
They hung from a box hanging down from the cab ceiling.
GE replaced them with an arrangement that wasn't a whole lot better. The new ones were on a stand directly in front of the engineer and about knee-high or thereabouts. The reverse lever was below the throttle. The throttle swung through about a hundred-degree arc to get from idle to run eight and a half.
Mighty convenient for switching, I can tell you (from experience).
It's a shame that GE didn't have a Hot Water to tell them how to design a convenient set of controls.
EdKing
I know that the original GE "pre U25" demonstrators (R/N 751 and 752) had "grapevine" throttles, with the handle exiting a box mounted forward near the cab ceiling. Later production U25B's and C's had a 16 notch wonder. The thought behind the 16 notch throttle was that the odd numbered notches just increased main generator excitation as a way of minimizing the jump in tractive effort from notch to notch, to aid in train handling. (Keep in mind that at this time the "standard" road freight locomotive was a EMD F7 with 1750 HP. A U25B had 2500 THP.)
Since there were "three or four" switchers every 20 miles or so, there was absolutely no thought that a U25 would ever have to switch! Additionally, it was impossible to "sweep" the throttle as each notch had a detent. This design choice made a locomotive with a four stroke diesel engine and an exhaust driven turbo load even slower. GE was roundly criticized for this design choice, and justifiably so.
After some time, and an accident where an engineer told the ICC investigator that he became "confused" re the throttle operation due to differences between a GE and a EMD, the AAR came up with a standard set of design guidelines, including 8 notches, size and placement of the reverse lever, throttle sweep in degrees arc, etc. GE redesigned its master controller to comply with that requirement.
This site:
http://railroadlocomotives.blo...-control-stands.html
has pictures of the two stands Ed described above. 12 hours (or more) on one of those units would be a painful experience...
Of course one of the selling points of high HP units was unit reduction. Replace four 1750hp units with three 2500hp units to not only save one unit ownership and maintenance but you also get 7500 hp instead of 7000hp.
And reducing one unit in the locomotive consist reduced the Engineer's rate of pay (which was based on weight on drivers) by 56 cents per crew district, and the Fireman's rate of pay was reduced by 43 cents. Oh, how some of those old Engineers would moan and groan about that!
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