| Posted by K100DS on September 25, 2013 | |
Is the bell functional or just for looks?
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A Nose bell on a SD70ACe! I can't describe how happy this made me today! What class that adds! I really hope they keep the old Alcos as well, but this looks great! Love the new scheme too!
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Also note that they stole that bell right off one of the ALCO's (color difference). The ACe's look like they're accumulating quite a bit of tunnel soot already...
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Love that bell! EMD should put them on all the SD70's
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Was there a DPU at the end of this, or will that be used only over the Boston Mountains for the Fort Smith turn?
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Nice livery, love the bell, but I am sure this is the end of the ALCo's. Too bad.
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If they had to go modern, I'm glad they chose EMD. A commenter on another pic of these units said "too brutish" uh-uh...just right! And I've spoken my opinion of certain aspects of the logo and stripes on another photo, but I think the bell is a very classy touch.
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| Posted by Tugboat on September 26, 2013 | |
There is also a synthetic bell just below the batts. I dont see an air line to the bell on the cab.
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Yeah, it looks like they just slapped the bell on there for now, but knowing the A&M, they will make it functional.
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That Bronze Bell is great, and I hope these bells will be made operable. I also know just how far our locomotive builders have cheeped out in the bell department. From Bronze, an Eighty-Twenty mix of Brass and Tin, to Cast Steel and now to an Electronic Imitation of a bell, how sad. At roughly a Million plus dollars per copy, a brand new locomotive should have a sweet sounding bell ! I saw a photo, posted recently, of one of the C-420's with it's bell missing and wondered of the bells fate, now that I know where that bell went, I am very happy
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| Posted by Barry K on September 26, 2013 | |
As of right now the bell on the cab does not work yet, but I've heard that they are supposed to get it to work sometime in the near future. Also the Monett turns have not been more than 25-35 cars a day in which 2 SD70ACe's are having way more ease hauling that than needs to be. Plus at this time the DPU equipment has not been setup by an EMD technician so right now the Fort Smith turn has been ran with the 3 SD70ACe's on the headend since they first acquired them. Last Sunday (09-22-13) they made 3 runs to Van Buren with the first one being light but they picked up 133 OG&E coal cars and headed up the line and they had NO problem what so ever keeping pace with the long train up the grade!
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Whoa, whoa, whoa. 133 OG&E coal cars? Were they empty, I assume, coming from Van Buren? Never have seen a coal run on the A&M before. Was this just a test or will there be more trains like those? (It would be fascinating to see coalers on this line.)
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