(erielack) EL E Unit Conversions

[tommy meehan <tmeehan0421_@_gmail.com>]

Paul R. Tupaczewski wrote that E8s 809, 810, 812,
813, 814, 815, 817, 818, 819, 820, 826, 828, 832
were regeared from 57:20 to 62:15. Very interesting,
I never knew that. I thought the railroad was just
running the miles out of them.

Of the three Es in the Columbus Day photo only
812 is on the list. (The other two were 822 and
830.) So I guess some were just getting beaten up.
LOL

If I remember right, the late Vernon Smith explained
(in "Diesel From D to L," which is available in reprint if
anyone is interested) that regearing involved dropping
the trucks and replacing the movable teethed gears
on the axles. That sounds like a fairly straight forward
job. Does anybody know what EL shop might've done
the work?

The other thing that occurs is, by the 1970s some of
the first generation diesels were getting pretty worn
out.

Again I believe I read this in DIAMOND -one of the
Buffalo switching roads was leasing power from EL.
Crews were complaining that an EL GP-7 they leased
was a real dog. When they load tested the unit it
was barely putting out 1000 HP. I think their motive
power guy said for that reason he preferred to lease
1000 HP yard type locomotives which seemed to
more reliably produce their rated horsepower. Except
EL usually didn't want to lease the yard engines. They
wanted to lease the older Geeps.

tommy meehan

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