It was a shame that none of EMD's small fleet of production DD35 units were preserved. In particular, the DD35 A units were stylish, beefy machines that looked terrific hauling freight along the mainlines of the Union Pacific.
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Sad, and too bad that not one got saved* ... I didn't realize that these ended up so far east for scrapping. (* - But, we can't save everything...)
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Nice that you caught this, Charles, but it is a very sad sight
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| Posted by joe on February 26, 2010 | |
Why were these units scrapped so early in there lives?
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Joe,
The DD35, DD40, U50B and other 2 engine locomotives were built to save money by only having to pay for and maintain one cab for every 2 engines. Seemed like a good idea but it became apparent pretty quickly that this meant if either one of the engines needed repair, then 2 engines worth of power had to be taken off line. I also suspect that it was harder to assign power to a train in multiples of 6000HP rather than 3000HP.
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