[N&W] Re: N&W Alco question

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

N&W Listers,
Let me add a figure and a few unit numbers for the original N&W SD-45's as
mentioned below:
Nos. 1700 to 1234 tipped the scales at 410,000 pounds in working order (WO).
Nos. 1235 to 1814 weighted 420,000 in WO.
We loved to have one of the later SD-45's in our locomotive consist as the
added weight many times would put us up into the next pay bracket. (Engine
crews were paid on a "Weight-On-Drivers" basis. The more weight you had in
your consist, the higher was your pay).
And of course they had 3 brake cylinders per truck sideframe with steel
brake shoes which gave much better braking action. The earlier SD-35's had
only 2 cylinders per side and composition shoes and they absolutely would
NOT stop. With "Lite" units, one had to be very careful when coupling up to
a train lest you ram in to the cars and knock the heck out of everything.
I was extremely lucky in that as my first trip as "The big E" (Engineer), I
had TWO of the later SD-45's, Nos. 1781 and 1770 did not have to worry about
the Independent or Locomotive brakes.
Tom "N&W" Dressler