@up148 posted:Great video Rusty! I took some 35mm photos of it and a Centennial #6930 sitting side by side in south KCMO on storage tracks.....before the trade/move to IRM. I was already "ate up" with turbines at the time and had previously read they all came to to KC to be scraped....so this was a real surprise. Photos are not dated, but pretty sure this was mid 80's and I believe it sat there for the best part of the summer.
Since I had no permission to be near it, I photographed it from the ground and climbed up on top for roof top detail photos, but never got in the "A" or "B" unit like you did. I figured being inside might be harder to explain to security/police/??? than just climbing around on it....but no one came or cared. The tender was painted black at that time.
At the time, Intercontinental Engineering was removing the turbines and reconditioning them for barge use. I never heard if they were successful in that application or not.
@TexasSP posted:I thought the turbine powered the trucks on both units and the diesel only the front? Also if I recall from what I read only two axles per truck were powered but don't recall what the configuration was.
Nope, there were 12 traction motors. Having A-1-A trucks would've negated some of the advantages of the turbines. The same for have the A and B MU. Otherwise you'd just have the B unit pushing around dead weight on the road. I recall KCRM discussing "exchanging" two traction motors for a welding rig from Intercontinental.
I suppose it's possible the hosteling diesel only powered the A unit for poking around light in the yard, but I can't really say, I haven't located any document to prove one way or the other. The diesel was 850 horsepower motor by Cooper-Bessemer.
Note #1: The 18 was used to switch the dead line at Intercontinental when needed, as it was the last unit in line.
Note #2: Neither the 18 or 26 were donated by the UP to the museums as they no longer held title. They were donated by Intercontinental Engineering.
Rusty
