Question about single FL9 operation

Do you happen to recall exactly when operation of single FL9's was authorized?

From what I've seen that was not contemplated when the first units were delivered. Various railroad documents in the late 50s refer to an EDER-5 as a "3500 horsepower locomotive," from which you can conclude that they were always operated as a pair early in their lives. Single unit operation began sometime in 1960 because I remember for sure that some of the Danbury trains had a single unit by the summer of 1960 --- but do you remember a specific date?

I believe it may have started in December, 1959. I have some records from my days in GCT and will try to check this out sometime before too long. The first jobs that had single FL-9's out of NY were 140, 143, 379 and one EB but I do not remember just which one. They put on an additional emergency engineer to assist in moves with single units at GCT when this took place.
Of course single FL-9's were common east of New Haven long before the above date.
Noel Weaver

Thank you!!

I recall 140-143 having two units as late as sometime in March 1960 (of course that doesn't mean it had two every day).

Tom

The cool thing about this site, it brings back so many memories! In the mid-60's me and a bud had occasion to head for the Big Apple from Bridgeport on a train which originated in Springfield and paused at Bridgeport around 5:40 pm. It was about 5 cars in length and featured one of the New Haven's stainless steel grille cars. My friend had never enjoyed the experience of eating on a train before, so naturally I had to "break him in." As a railfan, the surprising thing for me was the power up front - a single FL-9! I used to commute between Stratford/Bridgeport and Darien back in those days and the 9:48 am train (Bridgeport departure time) was my usual westbound conveyance. It almost always had 2-FL-9's in tandem (instead of the occasional electric motor); I had simply (up to that point) never seen a single unit FL-9 on the main line before (by the time NH was folded into Penn Central I had witnessed MANY single FL-9's in action). I had read comments in railfan mags about FL-9 slow acceleration but on this mid-60's occasion our arrival in GCT was OT. And the NH food and service was, as always, great.

#6, The Mayflower usually rated a single FL-9 into Boston and I'm pretty sure that the Boston-Providence local that stalled just west of Dedham Road and was rammed by a pair of RDCs running to Stoughton about 1960 was running behind a single FL-9. #33 out of Boston at 6 pm usually rated a single FL-9 also.

edbear wrote:#6, The Mayflower usually rated a single FL-9 into Boston and I'm pretty sure that the Boston-Providence local that stalled just west of Dedham Road and was rammed by a pair of RDCs running to Stoughton about 1960 was running behind a single FL-9. #33 out of Boston at 6 pm usually rated a single FL-9 also.

There's a great photo of the Mayflower ca. 1968 on page 153 of Peter Lynch's New Haven Passenger Trains: single FL9, a grill car and two coaches. Amazing how much more ridership there is on the Boston-New York run in 2011 than there was in the late '60s-- if you tried to a run a three-car consist today you'd wind up with something resembling a Bombay commuter local!

The low point in the New York - Boston operation was maybe in January, 1970 when Penn Central operated 8 round trips between New York and Boston and at least one of the trains ran with one locomotive and one coach. It did not get any worse than that and after Amtrak took over, it went uphill in spurts.
5:40 PM in Bridgeport was train 79 which left New Haven at 5:20 PM and arrived in Grand Central Terminal at 7:00 PM. It did not have a diner or grill but it did have a Parlor car from Springfield. I had that job firing through a period in the mid 60's and one reason we were usually on time was because we litterally flew in to the stations where we had to stop, it was the only way you would be on time with a single FL-9 and 5, 6 or 7 cars. By the mid 60's there were only three round trips on the Springfield Line with meal service cars; 58, 80 and 86 eastbound and 67, 71 and 77 westbound and usually these trains had grill cars. I don't think there were any on Saturday and Sunday.
Noel Weaver