Re: (erielack) DL&W, EL FT's

[Dlw1el2_@_aol.com]

In a message dated 6/3/2006 12:10:44 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
weeb_@_centurytel.net writes:

Got a  question maybe for Paul or one of the DL&W guys, As I was growing
up in  Scranton I used to see the FT sets on a daily basis grinding up
the hill  past my Grandfathers house at the end of Myrtle St across from
the  Petersburg Silk Mill. Sometime in the 50’s the 602 set had its
booster  taken out and the cabs were coupled back to back with drawbars,
same with  the 603 set, I believe the 602 booster was put in the 601 set,
and the 603  booster went to the 604 set making them both 4 unit sets
with all units  having drawbars between units. As the locomotive diagram
for these units  show that the boosters were the only units with
batteries and toilets, how  did the double A unit couplets get started
and how did they use them  without toilet facilities, seems to me the
unions would have pitched a  gripe, Also the 602-603 AA sets lasted for
years in pusher service, even  into the EL years as 6021-6024,6031-6034,
both coupled back to back and  pushing up the hills. Another aside, you
could always tell the difference  in sound if a train was going upgrade
from the Nay Aug tunnel with the  4unit FT’s on the point, maybe it was
the 4 exhaust stacks versus 2 on  other EMD locomotives, they just had a
distinctive sound, more like a hot  rod. Another memory was the dynamic
brake sound on the FT’s again it  sounded different as they would head
eastbound around the super elevated  curve just past Ash St. and down the
hill to the tunnel.
 
 




Weeb
 
All the Lackawanna FT A units had Battery's, so there was never a  problem 
with two A units together. In fact on the FTs only the A units had  battery's.
 
As far as toilets went.   I may be wrong, but that was  WAAAAAAYYYYY before 
any such union agreement requiring the engines to have  toilets. I don't think 
there is any such agreement even today.  Remember  the NS and there bucks and 
plastic bags. All the bad publicity at CR merger time  was the ONLY thing that 
made that go away. NOT any union agreement. On  Lackawanna road units only 
the RS3 and FMs  didn't have toilets, but  remember these were simple drop 
toilets, so you really had to be desperate to  use them, from shortly after they 
units were delivered to the day they were  scrapped.  On the FTs it was in the B 
unit.
 
Although through the years there were many combinations of FTs intermixed  on 
the Lackawanna, the 604C, 602B, 604B, 604A stayed together frequently,  if 
not permanently, for several years in the latter 1950s
 
I can't comment on the sound. They all had 567A engines.  Maybe the  four 
exhausts slightly altered the sound?    Same with the  Dynamic Brake sound being 
different, unexplainable!
 
Bob Bahrs


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