I hope all here have a safe and HAPPY SWSAT! and I trust that Stephen is having a HAPPY SEVENTH BIRTHDAY!
I'm putting this pic up again because it illustrates so perfectly the life× of the EMD end-cab switcher:
A pair of Shawmut SW9s just finishing dragging a cut of hoppers under a conveyor belt in a continuous-loading operation. The Shawmut had a small fleet of SW9s, nine in total.
From many years before, caught running-around an excursion train:
Seen here earlier that day on the bridge over the Allegheny River:
First generation EMD end-cab switchers are memorialized in the ubiquitous Lionel "NW2" (a near-scale stylized amalgamation of various EMD characteristics, even including Blomberg trucks as seen on the prototype MP15):
The Shawmut SW9s were built in 1953 with 1200HP V12 567BC engines. The culmination of the EMD end-cab switcher line came as the 1500HP V12 645 engined SW1500, later modified with Blomberg trucks as the MP15DC and finally, (after replacing the DC main generator with an AC alternator) the MP15AC.
Motive power on the PER is one such, an SW1500 in the original iteration with Flexicoil trucks:
Quite at home pulling the Scrapyard siding:
It is common for this burly workhorse to handle 12 car cuts when working either the East End or West End industrial areas:
All of us here are delighted to see Lee Drennen on the mend and Posting here again.
