NYSW (ex-NYC C430s)

Luther:

Here is what I believe to be what happened at RLW, all during late 1980s.

3000: Sent to RLW for engine work and repainting. The RLW repaints resulted in a larger black stripe along the top of the long hood. A short while after she was released, she derailed and rolled onto her left side, which caused some damage including crushing of the cab roof. I believe ice at a crossing caused the derailment. She returned to RLW for wreck repairs.

3002: Also rolled onto her side due to a derailment, damage was worse than 3000. The ends of the frame were bent along the engineer's side. I recall it was very close to the time 3000 rolled. I don't think she was ever repaired. She may have become a donor unit for 3000, and then scrapped. She was sent to RLW.

3006: Rebuild/Repaint, again with wider black stripe along the top of the long hood.

As far as I know, 3008 was out of service and maybe scrapped before this timeframe. I don't think 3004 ever made it to RLW. I have many photos of 3000 and 3006 before and after repaint, as well as 3002 being cannibalized.

The 3002 and 3004 were both wrecked prior to the formation of RLW, and the 3008 was laid up with engine failure at Little Ferry.

RLW began in late 1987 and received the 3000 sometime during the arly part of 1988, I think. At that time it was the only C430 in service, and it was barely useable as someone had installed 74:18 gearing in the lead truck and retained the 81:22 gearing in the rear truck making it go crazy trying to control it's wheel slip. It also had a bad oil intercooler and leaking water into the lube oil. In short it was a mess. 306 was down with an engine problem by mid 1987 or so - crankshaft I believe.

RLW rebuilt the 251 in the 3000 with rebuilt heads, cams, injectors, pumps, governor, air compressor, some cabling and wiring, intercooler, aftercooler and other items repaired or qualified such as fuel pump motor, starter motors, cab heaters, gages etc. I think 3000 also received new draft gear and couplers. Also the trucks were rebuilt, pins, bushings, wear plates, TM's and wheel sets / bearings. Some minor electrical cabinent work and some new blue cards.

I think we turned it out in Spring 1989 and it did the MArathon Maplefest after a test run south from Utica and a run to Cortland on freight.

3006 was at Rome a long time as a shop queen, and eventually go the engine/alternator and other parts from 3004, I think. Steve Macmillan did a nice article on the C430's in Diesel Era and nailed iit real accurate as to what RLW, NYSW, CR and PC had done. My roll was the Project Manager on the units at RLW. Sorry, I have forgotten alot over the years. Neither 3002 or 3004 ever went to Rome and 3008 was scrapped about 1988 at Little Ferry and contributed no signnificant parts. That was too bad cause she was complete and in nice shape. Could have got an engine from 3002 or 3004, but that was not where NYSW motivepower philosophy was headed then.

3006 got band-aid work and no real rebuild or major work than the engine change-in-kind. It was a wonder that it ran and loaded and we had alot of problem with a false hot engine alarm when the system was sucking the water out of the low water float in the "christmas tree". I spent WAY too many hours babysitting it and tinkering with it between Utica and Sherburne. It also puked oil terrible when it went back, later attributed to a bad turbo, but that was beyond the workscope contracted with RLW.

3002 was moved to Utica and parted and later scrapped in March of some year (late 1990's).

3000 returned to Rome in 1990? after rolling over on the Richfield Spgs Brnach near North Bridgewater due to a broken rail. RLW did some major wreck repair and turned it back with the name "John Treen" painted on the side, but covered over for a later dedication cermony. I have a picture of it at RLW lettered John Treen before we covered it over.

RLW had given NYSW quotes to repair 3008 and wreck repair 3002 and 3004 which were declined. The frame of 3002 was not bent, as we stringlinned it. It appears so on account of damage to the channel alonng the side.

Check out the Diesel Era issue on the 430's, it is a good mechanical and electrical history of repairs.

Thanks for clarifying CJ...I had a lot of photos of 3002 in the RLW archives but couldn't tell where they were taken so I assumed it was at Rome.

what RLW archives ??

Luther Brefo wrote:After "crawling all over truck" (figuratively) during my last trip to Lakeville, I discovered just one number set. It reads from top down:

33501
9
8-66 C

I believe the 33501 and 9 together are the serial number.

While the 8-66 might mean the date of manufacture as July of 1966.

Or it could be interpreted as truck number 33501 cast on July 9th, 1966.

I do not quite understand what the C means as this is certainly not a C truck.

Pictures will be coming shortly as I get them loaded onto my site.

This truck is a General Steel Castings truck. GSC was founded/owned in part by Alco and Baldwin at some point in time.

why not:

Serial: 33501
Cast number: 9 of ??, in August 1966

And where did you get July 9 1966? I can understand 9, 1966, but the 8 should be August....

The C probably means "August 1966, casting date"

So anyways...

The last time I spoke to some of the LA&L personnel about the C430, it was said that the C-430s could actually run on several different truck designs provided they are B trucks with big-enough motors to handle the generated power. It was said that the AAR B truck would work 9as it did on the reading engines) and even EMD Blombergs could work.

My question is what is the equivalent in traction motor design/rating for the motors that were under the C430s?

And in addition, did the C430s run on GE 752s?

IIRC, they were equipped with alternators as opposed to generator and were then rectified for the motors.

While searching for some information on GE traction motors I came across a sub discussion in this thread regarding the Hi-Ad truck on the C-430's. It was stated that these are General Steel Casting trucks. While probably manufactured by GSC the design for the trucks was Alco's. US Patent #3541970 was issued to Alexander Ross (an Alco employee) on 24 November 1970 with the Assignee (patent owner) being Alco Products.

For those who are interested the patent has good top and side view drawings of the truck as well as well as a sectional drawing through the center of the bolster and frame. A convenient place to download a pdf version of the complete patent is www.pat2pdf.org.

John