I wanted to know if the rear plows used on the Espee engines (SD45T-2, SD40T-2, etc.) were the same plows? Did they use a lower, smaller plow on the rear? Thanks.
With the SP you can't ever say never, but regardless of which plow it was, I've not seen a plow on the rear on any tunnel motor photos at all.
You're not looking hard enough.:mwink: All SP SD45T-2s were delivered with plows on the rear (Cotton Belt's had MU hose catch trays on their rear pilots instead of plows). All SP SD40T-2s up to SP 8498 had plows front and rear as well; SP 8499 on up, as well as the last T-2s built, SP 8230-8299, had plows on the front end only (as did all Cotton Belt SD40T-2s). You can make out the rear plow on this shot of SP 8307, and you can clearly see the plow on the rear of the SD40T-2 coupled up to it. In later years...roughly the mid-80s on...many started losing rear plows (and light packages) as part of the cost-cutting during those lean years. Regardless, there are many resources, such as Joe Strapac's Southern Pacific Historic Diesels, Vol. 14: SD45T-2, and issues of Diesel Era, that document these details in print and photo. That's why I'm a huge advocate of modelers buying books and magazines covering their favorite roads, since websites come and go, and don't always cover everything. Just because there isn't a readily available photo online doesn't mean it didn't exist!:mbiggrin:
Why did you completely ignore the first phrase I wrote? Most of the data I need to research is around the date of my layout, which is 9/11/96, and according your incredible volume of information, most would NOT have rear plows? And if that one link is all you have to "somewhat" verity your contentions, then your case is pretty weak, because I can show many where the plows don't exist.
Yeah, gotta watch it when you get to a certain time period. Details start to change. Plows only on one end, lights being removed, rotary beacons instead of gyralites, oh, then ditchlights, horns being moved to the rear hood, etc etc. If I have more than one of a type of loco, I try to vary the details slightly but prototypically. Makes it a ton of fun to do SP!
I'm surely with the last line you wrote. My problem is, I LOVE mars lights, and while I absolutely LOVE tunnel motors, I also LOVE SD70M's. It's MY railroad isn't it! Maybe I'll put mars lights on my SD70M's!! Wouldn't it be COOL... dual mars lights on the front porch instead of ditch lights!:tb-biggrin::tb-biggrin:
Uh, I did read your phrase, which made it seem like you'd never seen any examples of SP power with rear plows, period, amongst all your resources and web photos perused. And fwiw, even though I also model SP in the late 80s-90s, I'm pretty aware of how they optioned their power through research, some of it via the web, a lot more through books and other photo resources. And I could certainly steer you to plenty of examples of units with front and rear plows, either in print, or web. If you don't need plows in your era, that's well and good, but that's not to say they never had them at all just because you hadn't seen examples equipped as such. And as I said in my original post, while the T-2s mentioned had plows front and rear from EMD, they began to lose them from the rear around the mid-80s. By the time UP came along, most, if not all, had lost rear plows.
Flash, here's a couple more online photo's with rear plows... http://www.trainweb.org/tomfassett/pics/9246_SP_EMD_SD45T-2.JPG http://www.trainweb.org/tomfassett/pics/9344_SP_EMD_SD45T-2.JPG
Thanks for the help. I just purchased two types of plows from Atlas. One is the large plow and one is the "GP40" plow. They are a reasonable one US$ each. I checked the plows on some Espee photos, and the GP40 plow is indeed different from the GP40-2 (large or high) plow. 890250 medium GP40 plow 891250 high GP40-2 plow 890235 Windshield wipers for front windshield cab unit
The most correct plow for Espee units so equipped is "Detail West"#140. I think the same plow was used for the rear on units with them. Many of the SD45's SD45T-2's SD40T-2's were delivered with rear plows. Over the years changes no doubt were made. Especially with the aborted merger with ATSF. Even before the merger that didn't happen ATSF management was making changes to Espee power. Yello roof top beacons replaced the "Mars Light" and red emergency light leaving blanked out lights between numberboards and a notch in the low hood.
