January 11 2002 at 12:13 AM No score for this post
While browsing through the New England Rail site: http://photos.nerail.org/show/?byrail:48:Boston_&_Maine
page 48 shows a series of photos with B&M P2 #3639 digging itself a hole in the pit. While this is amusing in itself, the date stated on the photo says the early 1900's. If so, the B&M must have had a really early (GP.007?) demonstrator as one is pictured at the far left of the 2nd photo. Also, it looks like the Rt.93 expressway is operating in the background. Does anyone know when the 3639 really did it's thing? I think 1953-54 would be close
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That's not the I-93 in the background... it's the Prison Point Bridge. The Interstate Highway system was not even conceived when this photo was taken, and in any event the I-93 extension wasn't built until the early 1970s. If that is in fact a GP7 in one of the photos, these were not delivered until 1952.
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You are right about the Prison Point Bridge...I was looking in the wrong direction. However, if you are looking at the same photo, (3639fall2), nothing that I know of had the stripes like this except the rear of a GP7...with the additional box-like addition for steam generator equipment.
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The position of the marker lights gives a clue to the age of a P-2. The second picture shows them to be on the top of the firebox. They were moved from the side to the top sometime in the 20s.
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If you are looking at the same photo, (3639fall2), nothing that I know of had the stripes like this
except the rear of a GP7...with the additional box-like addition for steam generator equipment. Still think is's about 1952-53.
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The photo is pretty murky on this old terminal, but the old diesel, if it is indeed a locomotive, you see may be #1100, a GE/Ingersoll-Rand steeple cab built in 1934 that survived into the fifties.
Incidentally, EMD built the first GP-7 in 1949.
The B&M received its first one in 1950, and they continued to trickle in until 1953.
(From "The Second Diesel Spotters Guide" and a B&M specification and classification book)
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If you are looking at the same photo, (3639fall2), nothing that I know of had the stripes like this
except the rear of a GP7...with the additional box-like addition for steam generator equipment.
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As I said, the photo was pretty murky on the terminal I was using. this one is a little better. Yes, it does look like a GP-7. Now, if someone wants to do some high resolution magic and get a number off the geep, in conjunction with the date the P-2 was scrapped, it should narrow things down quite a bit as far as the date. Of course, theres probably a retiree somewhere out there that we haven't found yet that remembers the incident like it was yesterday!
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I know that in more recent times,('70's to present, and possibly earlier) someone, I think AAR or DOT, will at the conclusion of an accident investigation, compile it in an annual report of accidents and publishes it for distribution among railroad safety officers and various others. Someone with more time than me could, quite possibly try searching for such governmental web sites and see how far back they could go. I know the FAA has such a web site that lists and describes aircraft accidents in this manner.
Also, has anyone thought to try the morgues at the various Boston papers?
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I had a computer jock friend try and pull a number of the diesel, no luck, but its definitely a GP-7, study the roof fixtures.
Incidently, that box on the end of of the long hood is for H.E.P, not a steam generator, that was located in the short hood near the toilet.
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