That high-pitched whine on EMD's at high speed was the turbo, which was not heard on EL until the GP35's arrived in 1964. I rode behind a 4-axle FM last weekend at the NC Trans. Museum. The museum personnel told me the loco still had its original OP engine, but at low speed it sounded an awful lot like a 567. Paul B The Trainmasters captivated me as a pre-teen. They were so massive and loud. They made the EMD's sound like whining cats. The roar of the TM was not like the other locomotives. Alcos and Baldwins always sound like they could stall any minute. The EMD's had the high pitch whine at high speeds and a constant rapid idle. The TM's were so loud that when they started a train out of Mountain View they would generate a frequency, as they accelerated, that would vibrate the knick-knacks on my aunts shelves about a mile away up on Alps Road. Nothing compared to them when they were in their prime. It's too bad they had the high maintenance issues with the OP engine. I never heard much about electrical failures before the merger. Somewhere around 1962, the FM's seemed to leave the Boonton Line. That was also at the time when most freight was moved over to the Erie side. Ed Montgomery The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List Sponsored by the ELH&TS http://www.elhts.org To Unsubscribe: http://lists.elhts.org/erielackunsub.html ------------------------------
This HTML page is © 2000-2009 Blue Moon Online System and The Railfan Network
This page and the data contained therein may not be reproduced
for any form of commercial use without the explicit permission
of J. Henry Priebe Jr. or his duly authorized agent.