I was just looking at the Joe Strapac Espee Historic Diesels, Vol 14, SD45T-2s. It states, and clearly illustrates, that original Espee SD45T-2s did not have anti-climbers on the nose but did have them on the rear. Strange. I haven't read far enough, but I think all of them eventually had a front anti-climber. Probably an FRA regulation thing. Seems like some of us gave InterMountain a hard time about no anti-climber on their N scale tunnel motor engines, but I guess IM was correct or at least had data to back up their model. Here's a Cotton Belt example from Richard Percy's Espee Modeler's Website.
I was watching "Modern Marvels-Locomotives" on the history channel and it stated the anti-climber wasn't developed until the late 1970"s
Well Flash, Your'e right about the SD45T-2's. Some of those did get anticlimbers later on,But they were delivered with no front anticlimber. On the other hand... ALL of the SP SD40T-2's came with front and rear anticlimbers.(they were produced later than the SD45T's) :tb-smile:
Welllll...not quite.:tb-biggrin: To clarify, NONE of the Espee (or Cotton Belt) SD45T-2s that were built without anticlimbers got them as retrofits later on. These units, SP 9166-9260, 9302-9329, SSW 9157-9165, and 9261-9301, were all built with only the drop step on the front, and a full-width anticlimber on the rear only. The later SD45T-2 orders, SP/SSW 9330-9404, all had front and rear anticlimbers from the factory. While one SD45T-2R is documented in the Strapac book as getting an anticlimber at some point (SP 6793), that's an oddity, since for all intents and purposes, a "true" anticlimber is not something easily retrofitted. This is because an anticlimber is more or less an extension of the locomotive frame, there to provide an added bit of safety in a mishap. The unit is built from the get-go with an anticlimber in mind; it's not something that can be easily or cheaply slapped on at a later date. Because of this, none of the SD45T-2s (with the exception of 6793) that didn't have anticlimbers as-built, ever got them as retrofits. With the exception of 6793, as far as Espee was concerned, if it came out of EMD without a front anticlimber, it was retired without a front anticlimber. As for that oddball 6793, the only reason I can think of for it getting an anticlimber is because of a major wreck repair. It started out as SP 9203, one of the large group of units built without the anticlimber. It was rebuilt by SP in their Sacramento Locomotive Works in 1987, becoming SD45T-2R 6793 in the process; here's how it looked fresh from the shop - even though it's front-coupled, you can tell the lack of a front anticlimber by the handrail shape and presence of the angled uncoupling levers: http://www.locophotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=89548 Now, somewhere along the way, I figure it was involved in some kind of major wreck that involved heavy damage to the front end. Here it is in 1999, in fresh Speed Lettering, and now with a front anticlimber: http://espee.railfan.net/nonindex/sd45t-2r_photos/6793sl_sp-sd45t-2r-ryan_martin.jpg My guess is that it was involved in a wreck somewhere, and it was shipped off to an outside contract shop (like VMV or MK) that repaired it with whatever components they had lying around, as opposed to frugal SP, which typically repaired units in-kind. Besides the addition of an anticlimber, other tip-offs that it's probably not an in-house repair (or paint job) are the non-standard plow, non-SP number board numbers (although by the time the photo was taken, it's possible those were a post-UP takeover change), the rebuilt nose "point" above the nose headlight (definitely not something SP would do!), and the non-standard cab numbers (a bit different that the serif-style Roman SP used), and even the Speed Lettering isn't standard SP; the shape and spacing of the letters in the word "Southern" is different than what SP and EMD applied to new or repainted units. The only other units I've seen with that same style of cab number and Speed Lettering are the ex-CSXT GP38-2s that SP picked up from Helm Leasing. Bottom line is that details like this make modelers like myself crazy...or maybe crazier.:tb-wacky:
