Largest Electric Locomotive in the USA ? ?

J

Johnk

Boarded October 2001
Yep, it's a question.

I once had a Model Railroader magazine (possibly in the 1970's) that contained plans of what I think was the largest Electric Locomotive in the US of A. It was just a big black brick on wheels with pantographs at both ends. I was going to model it in O scale and had all the bits, but no energy.

Can someone please point me towards a few prototype photos of what they think it may be? I can't remember the road name or anything, but I thought the era would have been the 50's or 60's. I know it was big, black and ugly in a really nice kind of way.

Thanks,

John
 
Thanks very much for the replies chaps. I appreciate your time.

magicmaker: I think it was the the MILW EF-1 (IN game). Maybe the Model Railroader photo was in black and white. When you say (in game), do you mean it's in the packaged Trainz and I've missed it all these years? Or is it on the DLS? Just Ya or Na will do fine. it looks like the beast I recall but I didn't realise it was a multiple unit job. I only had one set of pantographs.

When I moved to Cairns, I gave a friend 30 years of Model Railroader to look after. I've since lost contact with him. In those days they had several plans every month.

mjolnir: Unfortunately your link is screwed up. Any chance you can fix it?

Monkeywrench: I had similar problems with yours also.

Regards to all.

John
 
motorbreath said:
I have TRS06 and I believe that loco set is in fact in-game.
Click to expand...

Well, what about that? I have TRS2006 on my computer still so I'll have a look. The next bit is for the programmers at Auran, so I'm shouting:

THAT'S IF I CAN FIND A MAGNIFYING GLASS TO LOOK AT THE MICROSCOPIC ICONS!!!!!

Thanks motorbreath.
 
Let's start with the basics. It sounds like he's talking about a box cab, and apparently a classic design in a dark color. What are the largest box cab electrics?
My first guess would be Pennsylvania motor, so I checked out http://prr.railfan.net/freight/PRRdiagrams.html?sel=ele&sz=sm&fr= and found this: http://prr.railfan.net/diagrams/PRRdiagrams.html?diag=ff2.gif&sel=ele&sz=sm&fr=
It's almost 74 feet between the couplers and has pantographs out at the ends, so it's a good candidate.

:cool:Claude
 
The FF2 was purchased from GN and is just a Y-1 class.

Interestingly, GN rebuilt one of these with cabs from a FT, producing the Y-1a variant.

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/gn5011.jpg

Nice looking isn't it?

Having said that, PRR also had the FF1, of which only one was built.


It was built in 1917 for the task of hauling freight trains across the Allegheny mountains, which the PRR planned to electrify; this was never accomplished. In testing, "Big Liz" proved workable but simply too powerful for the freight cars of the time. On the front of the train, it regularly snapped drawbars, while when used as a pusher on the rear its force was sufficient to destroy the cars it pushed.

If I remember correctly, part of the problem with "Big Liz" (as it was called) was that it only had three positions on its controller. Those being neutral, position one, and position two.
 
The biggest one is my MILW EF-1, it is in TRS4 and up, it is an "A" and a "B" unit and ran as ABBA and as ABBBA. The old color was dark green witch would photograph as black. You may also have seen the Ford DT&I two unit monster.
 
Thanks for continuing with this without my input guys. I have a shocker of a cold. it's 1.45am and I should be in bed. I'm working on another massive project at present so I don't have much time to follow up.

I did take five and look at the Model Railroader Index for the past 40 years. They only published about 20 electric loco plans in that time, so when I get a moment I'll list them for you all to see.

The wheel arrangement on the EF-1 doesn't look right, but the loco does. The wheel arrangement on the FF2 does look right, but the loco doesn't. I can recall the photo more than the plan. it was taken from around 8 o'clock at ground level and the loco was hauling a very long train up a slight incline.

Talk amongst yourselves by all means, but I have to opt out for a day or two. I'll poke around during coffee breaks.

Regards to all.
 
The interesting thing about the EF-1's is that they were rebuilt a couple times. For example:

In 1950, two EF-1 locomotives, E22A/B and E23A/B were converted back into passenger service as class EP-1A to help the aging Bi Polars on thehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puget_Sound Puget Sound Extension. E22 received some smoothing of its appearance, including somewhat "streamlined" cab fronts. You'll note, it was painted in UP colors.

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/milw22A.jpg

You'll note that in this picture, it's in MILW colors and has the first variation of the cab. Before more rounding was added.

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/cmsp_E22D.jpg

Believe it or not, the EF class was built from the EP-1 class, which then were replaced by the EP-2 Bi Polar. It's ironic in many ways that the boxcabs would at one point supplement the Bi Polars.

Also, an odd unit, ES-3 (created when the ABBA consists were made) was classified as a heavy switcher.
 
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