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Reply to "New Haven EP-5's"

Chuck Sartor posted:

You're right Tom, GE used outdated technology even before they were finished. The EP-5's used Mercury Arc ignatron rectifier tubes that were high maintenance, and from what I read, fragile and unreliable. Same with the Virginian E-33 rectifiers. In 1960 when the big Pennsy E-44's were built, they had solid state rectifier diodes. I read that the NH tried to convert one EP-5 to solid state that was a failure.

The first 60 E44s had Ignitron rectifiers. The last 6 were built with silicon rectifiers and produced 600 additional HP for a total of 5000. They were classed E44a. GE subsequently upgraded 22 of the original 60 to E44a standards. (4438-4459). The PC bankruptcy halted the upgrade program. Conrail replaced the Ignitron rectifiers with silicon components on the remaining (4400-4437) units but without the horsepower upgrade.

I saw the "Bricks" many times. Regrettably, I never trained my camera on one. I thought they were utilitarian looking and quite uninspiring to look at.

They could never draw my attention away from the magnificently styled GG1s, any more than a geep could compete with an F-unit, or any diesel with a live steam locomotive.

Note: There is no hyphen. PRR never used hyphens. (K4s, M1a, T1 GG1 etc.)

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