Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Dockside car pusher update

Thanks to Rick Rowlands, who sent me a copy of an original Baldwin/Westinghouse data sheet on the locomotive, I've been able to add quite a bit of information to the listing for Pennsylvania Railroad #3. This is a 3'6" gauge car pusher, a small electric locomotive that was used at the Pennsy's Whiskey Island coal loading facility to push hopper cars around. In between the "real" railroad tracks were narrow-gauge tracks where these car pushers operated; that way they could easily run around cuts of hoppers. They didn't couple but rather used retractable arms to shove the hoppers around.
Anyway, three of these Pennsy car pushers are preserved: one in North East, PA, one in Bellevue, OH, and one at Rick's organization, the Youngstown Steel Heritage Museum. The other two were built by Atlas making #3 the only one of the survivors built by B/W. It was acquired by YSHR in 2016 from the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. (The locomotive is pictured above as of 2003.)

So here are the specs, if you're interested:
Length: 24'8"
Height - over frame: 2'10-1/2" - over platform: 2'11-1/2" - over cab: 10'0"
Wheelbase, driving: 12'0"
Width overall: 5'6-1/2"
Wheels, tread: 4-1/4" - flanges: 1-1/4" thick x 1-1/8" deep - tire rim: 2-1/2" thick
Frames of: cast steel bar type - Cab: steel
Journals: 6-1/4" diameter by 6-1/4" long
Push poles - no couplings - center of push pole 3'-3" above rail
Motors: 2, no. 910, voltage 250 - gear ratio 17:73 - gears solid - press fit on axle
Controller: Type "HL" - Master, type 15-B4
Diverter, no. 438004 - frames 4
2 x third rail shoes
2 x fuse boxes, style no. 91348 and 4 no. 91355 fuses
Snap switches: 2, style no. 2435 (Perkins)
1 - switch group, type 264-I-6
1 - reverser, type 176-H-3
1 - motor cutout switch, type 364-C-2
1 - control switch, type 494-A
1 - control switch, type 495-A
1 - set control resistance s.o. 438007
1 - junction box, type 4-26 DS S# 134218
1 - type "D" 300 amp switch, DPST, S# 15731-A
1 - Sangamo watt hour meter type "D", and shunt, serial # 150903
1 - complete Westinghouse SM brake equipment with D-2 compressor
Destination of locomotive: West Breakwater Improvement, Cleveland, Ohio

HELP NEEDED: anyone have any information on the operating history of this locomotive, or the two surviving Atlas-built locomotives? And I'm also in need of dimensional and mechanical information on the two Atlas car pushers.

No comments:

Post a Comment