Running Bear's Coffee Sbop LXIX


Joe - Would this be the G1 ?

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Got a little work done on the SD40T-2. I had to rebuild the decoder support box because I had cut the first pieces to short. Installed one of the rear light bulbs too.

SD40T-2 Decoder Support.jpg
 

Chet: That's it. Amtrak actually repainted it. The idea was hatched, about the time that the NYC was experimenting with surplus jet engines, for snow clearance, and passenger train propulsion. The blower motor from the scrapped end, was remounted on the back of the G, which used the #2 end which contained the electrical equipment, transformer etc. (The boiler end was scrapped). It worked very well, although it was not advisable to stand near the switch being cleaned. Snow, stones, gravel, spikes and OTM became projectiles. I have not been down to Wilmington Shop, since 2008, so I'm not sure, but I think it was finally dismantled.

Garry and Chet: My preference was the Single Dulux stripe with centered large Keystone, in either Dark Green, or Red. Never liked the Imitation stainless though.

GG1s were generally washed along with their trains while looping the train at Sunnyside. That took care of the appearance of the side of the motor. This applied to motors assigned to passenger service, or those used in dual service - that is normally assigned to freight service but equipped with a steam generator. Freight motors, those equipped with upright boilers which were out of service, hardly ever saw the washer, no matter what scheme they were wearing. Once the passenger and freight sides were split, the freight motors just got dirtier.

For some reason, GG1s released from Wilmington shop, after MI or Running repairs, had their frames washed before being sent to the engine house for service. Only the cast frames, trucks and drivers were washed. The car bodies retained their dirt until the next trip through the Sunnyside washer. Penn Coach Yard, in Philly, also had a washer, but I do not recall seeing GG1s pass through it, except for special occasions.
 
Interesting recent business news. General Electric is planning to divest from its Transportation Division which includes locomotives. The company has been in the locomotive business for a century .

I can’t think of a major US company that would buy it. Already Caterpillar owns EMD.
 
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Interesting recent business news. General Electric is planning to divest from its Transportation Division which includes locomotives. The company has been in the locomotive business for a century .

I can’t think of a major US company that would buy it. Already Caterpillar owns EMD.

Heck! I could make a reply to that, but it'd be too political. But it might help world peace.
 
Interesting recent business news. General Electric is planning to divest from its Transportation Division which includes locomotives. The company has been in the locomotive business for a century .

I can’t think of a major US company that would buy it. Already Caterpillar owns EMD.
I'd wager the Chinese would be interested, if they could leave the unions out of the deal.
 
Good morning. It's cloudy and 42.
I'm off for my first appointment with my new doctor. We'll see how it goes. I waited until I was almost out of migraine medicine, because I didn't want the drama...
 
Getting a late start today. We have a major decision point coming up for our product and we have to make sure all our documentation is in good order. Will probably be working late tonight.
I got a call last night from my friends wife, he passed away Sunday night after a 9 year battle with lung cancer. He never smoked but still contracted it. He had been through quite a few chemo treatments along with some experimental applications. He was always active and maintained an upbeat attitude. I learned my video skills from him starting way back in 1995 at my church. His career was in video since he graduated from college back in the 60s. He ended up working for the FBI in their video productions department at Quantico, VA until he retired a few years back. He was a close friend to me and was there when both of my wives passed. A rock solid Christian who lived his faith. Larry White, you will be missed my brother.
 
Interesting recent business news. General Electric is planning to divest from its Transportation Division which includes locomotives. The company has been in the locomotive business for a century .

I can’t think of a major US company that would buy it. Already Caterpillar owns EMD.

Garry: Think Euro...Siemens - Alstom which already has a US presence, and could use GE's technology and facilities to compete with CRRC, the State owned Chinese competitor. GE, is attempting to raise cash to undo the "sins" of the Jeff Immelt era, think depressed stock price. Siemens is a competitor of GE's across product lines. Of course it doesn't help, that there is currently a surplus of locomotives here in the US, due to the decline of coal business, and other changes in transportation and logistics.
 
Good morning. we're at 34 degrees with some pretty heavy snow coming down at about an inch an hour. This is a heavy wet snow, not the powder that we normally get.

Joe - Thank again for you real life experiences and knowledge. My favorite paint job for the GG-1 was the green with the gold pin striping.

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By the way, Immelt is the reason I'll no longer buy anything with a GE name on it.

Garry - Interesting news about GE trying to sell its Transportation Division.

Terry - Good luck with the new doctor.

Ken D&J - Sorry to hear about your friend. Sound like he put up a good fight. Sounds like quite a man.

Here's a rail picture. Forgot to post one yesterday.

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Later
 
Getting a late start today. We have a major decision point coming up for our product and we have to make sure all our documentation is in good order. Will probably be working late tonight.
I got a call last night from my friends wife, he passed away Sunday night after a 9 year battle with lung cancer. He never smoked but still contracted it. He had been through quite a few chemo treatments along with some experimental applications. He was always active and maintained an upbeat attitude. I learned my video skills from him starting way back in 1995 at my church. His career was in video since he graduated from college back in the 60s. He ended up working for the FBI in their video productions department at Quantico, VA until he retired a few years back. He was a close friend to me and was there when both of my wives passed. A rock solid Christian who lived his faith. Larry White, you will be missed my brother.

Ken D&J ..... That is very sad news. Prayers for Larry White's family and friends.

Joe ... I was also wondering if the European companies would be interested. The previous GE CEO messed up GE. The new CEO has a Hunter Harrison strategy to bring back the company. I can imagine GE will be downsized enough so it will no longer be in the DJIA index. .... Meanwhile, CSX stock is sliding down.

Chet .... That's the GG1 paint scheme I like. Iconic. .... You were taking about installing grab irons and handrails on the Stewart F9B.... I use a pin vise. It is a slow process, but it works the best for me.

Below is my Stewart F3 ABBA (Phase 4) . I followed CB&Q practice for the grab irons.

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Back from the doctor. Got a (hopefully real) tetanus shot, good for 10 years. Doctor wanted me to get a flu shot, I declined the offer. He insisted I go to a neurologist for my migraines. I told him I wasn't interested in that approach, as I've been there several times, with the only result being a draining of my checking account. So, he sent in a referral for one anyway.
In the middle of the visit, my cell phone, which I had set to silent, started vibrating. After the visit, I saw it was a telemarketer. Good thing I didn't answer.
Then, after I started my truck, and started backing out of the parking space, I got "THIS IS AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM ONSTAR. YOUR ONSTAR SUBSCRIPTION IS ABOUT TO EXPIRE. PUSH THE BLUE ONSTAR BUTTON TO CONNECT TO AN ONSTAR ADVISOR TO RENEW YOUR SUBSCRIPTION".
After I got home, I ran the "telemarketer" phone number through a web search, and sure enough, it was Onstar.
The silence was good while it lasted. I hope that is the only (blaring and jarring) message I get from them.
 
Terry - I haven't ever taken a flu shot and in my 71 years only had the flu once. I know a few people who have had reactions to flu shots that were worse than the flu. I have (had) On-Star on my Silverado puck up (which I think I have sold) and on my Buick. On-Star is one of the features that GM shoves down the buyers thraots. No choice, it is standard equipment. When I first got my Buick I tried it is some of the mountain areas and in more remote parts of the state. Didn't work. All On-Star is, is a higher power cell phone. I can drive a few miles from my house into the mouth of the canyon going down to Yellowstone Park and again, On-Star doe not work. Don't need to pay $16 a month for a feature I am not at all interested in.

Garry - The CB&Q F units are sweet. Like the grab irons, but hate the pin vise. It is an unfortunate necessity though to add some details. I had thought about adding them to the NP F units but decided against it. I have added them to all of my Atlas Alco units and to a couple of F units and now with my eyes not being as good as they used to be, I'll have to pass.
 
A late Good Morning to Everyone. It's been 60° and overcast for the last five hour. We are supposed to warm up to 75° later today. Got another good workout in the garden and yard yesterday, vacuumed and raked up several bushels of leaves and tidied up the remainder of the garden. The garlic that I planted last month has emerged from the ground so the 2018 gardening season has officially begun for me. Later today I hope to slice some of the surplus onions from last spring and make some pickled onions, something that I haven't made since the 90's sometime. I also spent some time splitting wood and the body expressed it's displeasure yesterday evening while I was grilling burgers.
Out in the train shed, I did some more detailing of structures that I had previously built but did not completely detail. Now that I have their placement finalized, I am adding appropriate width sidewalks, along with roof details. I downloaded a bunch of interior pictures from the Internet yesterday that I will manipulate today (maybe), to use on the interiors of some of these buildings. While looking for some Preiser statues that I finally found, I also found about three dozen painted figures that I had put up and forgotten about when I cleaned off the layout surface to lay additional track a few months back. Many are appropriate for the scene that I am detailing right now.
Here's a couple of photos of "work in process". The first is an older DPM structure, "Seymour Block", being rehabbed from a previous layout and the second is another DPM structure "Carol's Corner Cafe", that I built about three weeks ago.
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Joe - Thanks for the background on the GG1's.
Chet - I am getting better at organizing the train shed, but I still have cartons of stuff that I packed up from the old train room that are partially unpacked. Problem is that I unpack and leave stuff on the layout and then pick it up later and put it somewhere else that isn't where it's supposed to be. Like you said, "...that would make sense and take the fun out of discovering something..."
That G1 picture is certainly a strange looking beast.
Terry - Maybe the receptionist needed shoes!
Garry - I knew about GE and some of their plans, but I did not know that they wanted to sell their Transportation Division. I did know that they were ceasing new loco production in Erie and consolidating it down the road from me in Ft. Worth TX.
Ken (D&J) - Sorry to hear the news about your friend.

Everybody have a great day.

Willie
 
On-Star doe not work. Don't need to pay $16 a month for a feature I am not at all interested

I had OnStar free for a year in my 2009 Silverado. That was before I had my own cell phone, so I did enjoy the cell in the truck. The monthly diagnostic printout that they sent out was also quite in depth and a good reminder for scheduled service. The best was one day when I was on my way to work. It was -35°C and the truck started to buck and stall, followed by an error code display on the dash. I hit the OnStar button, told them my problem, and they remappped the air/fuel curve in the computer remotely. I was able to restart it and drive away.

Being cheap I couldn't justify the extra expense though.
 
Garry:
Joe ... I was also wondering if the European companies would be interested. The previous GE CEO messed up GE. The new CEO has a Hunter Harrison strategy to bring back the company. I can imagine GE will be downsized enough so it will no longer be in the DJIA index. .... Meanwhile, CSX stock is sliding down.

While the market is down this morning, across the board, GE is trading just $0.02 above it's 52 week low. I don't track CSX. When you stop and think about it, the Dow, is an index of 30 stocks, initially, it was an index of 30 Industrial stocks, relatively insignificant by today's standards. GE is the last of the originals, and no longer fits in with its high flying index mates. At $18.22, it's only $6.22 above my baseline auto buy of $12. Totally unappealing right now, and if the dividend is cut, it will drop lower. I suppose the plan is asset sales to generate cash for stock buybacks.

BTW: The F3s look great.

Terry: It may interest you to know, that even when you are not subscribed to OnStar, the service monitors you use of the vehicle. When the wife's 2008 Caddie was due for service, I arranged to take it to the Caddie dealer. While driving over, on the morning of the appointment, I noticed the green on star light was on, although I have not subscribed to the service for over a year. When my turn with the Service advisor came up, he had all the recent diagnostic data, including tire pressure on his screen...now, where do you suppose they gleaned that data? The day following the visit, the wife complained that her settings had changed. There was nothing, that the dealer did, to change anything, they just changed the oil, and rotated the tires.
 



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