Railworks America

Has anyone done the DTG SD9 in GN livery? I have the Great Northerner SD7 and it is a beautiful creation, but I don't think the 7's ever had dynamic brakes, which might be pretty useful on the Cascadian.

Only two SD9s on GN ever had Dynamic Brakes.

BNSFdude wrote:Only two SD9s on GN ever had Dynamic Brakes.

AFAIK the only two that had them were also stationed at the ore docks last time I heard.

Assigned to the OC&E.

The vast majority of the GN's early hood units in didn't have dynamic brakes. In addition to the SD7/9s not having dynamics (except for the two SD9s already mentioned), the 56 GP7s were also without dynamic brakes and of the 79 GP9s, only a dozen got equipped with dynamic brakes in 1959, according to roster data assembled by Ben Ringnalda (http://www.greatnorthernempire.net/).

One question I sadly can't find an answer to is why that was the case. There are pictures that show the GN Geeps in heavy mainline freight duty and I assume the OP's statement that dynamic brakes would be useful on our TS route would have been equally true on the real Stevens and Marias Passes back then. So why didn't the GN use them? Some guesswork: Was it maybe a case of the RR being convervative (steam engines didn't have dynamic brakes and they got down the slopes just fine), didn't they trust the new(-ish?) technology, or did they maybe just want to save money when purchasing the new diesels?

Cheers
Michael

GreatNortherner wrote:The vast majority of the GN's early hood units in didn't have dynamic brakes. In addition to the SD7/9s not having dynamics (except for the two SD9s already mentioned), the 56 GP7s were also without dynamic brakes and of the 79 GP9s, only a dozen got equipped with dynamic brakes in 1959, according to roster data assembled by Ben Ringnalda (http://www.greatnorthernempire.net/).

Cheers
Michael

Hi Michael, trust you're well. Great Northern's SD7/9s were purchased for and largely used on the "flatlands" east end of the GN system and thus dynamic brakes were not considered necessary. The two exceptions (GN SD9s 598, 599) were purchased for assignment on the GN/SP operated Oregon, California & Eastern out of Klamath Falls, OR. Basically the same story with the early GN Geeps ... those without dynamic brakes were employed on the east end of the system while those so equipped worked the west (Marias Pass and west).

Hi Gary,

Thank you very much for sharing this with us. That's very interesting information that then probably also means that F-units were a more common sight on the heavy freights on the mountainous lines. And that the GN's Lines East must have been a lot busier than Lines West.

Cheers!
Michael