What Happened to B-UNITS?
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- Опубліковано 22 лис 2024
- The Booster, or B-unit, was once a staple of most diesel-powered American trains throughout the mid-20th century. They were cheaper cabless variants of their A-unit counterparts, and meant to supply extra horsepower. Steam locomotives were still more powerful than the diesel, but the diesel was far cheaper and more flexible. But what happened to the boosters? Why don't we see them on freight and passenger trains anymore?
Music:
OMORI - I Think My Dad Shops Here
Deltarune - Dialtone
Super Mario RPG - And My Name's Booster
OMORI - Finding Shapes in the Clouds
Deltarune - My Funky Town
Deltarune - Green Room
Deltarune - Girl Next Door
Deltarune - Game Main Theme (Piano Sketch)
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At 0:56, the 1600 hp should be 1800 hp. Sorry about that!
yuh huh
Yo amtrakGuy365!!! 🗣️🗣️🔥🔥💯💯
@@TheRuralRailfanner real
oof
you forgot the GE UM20B, it was one of the first GE locomotives meant to compete with EMD, and failed, however, it did have a B-unit
The AT&SF also converted locomotives that were involved in catastrophic wrecks, destroying the cabs into B units
I think other railroads also did that. A fucked up cab unit would get its controlls removed and windows blacked out, and it'd just work like a cabless booster.
Also irrc sometimes whem some stuff is either too damaged or too old to use its prime mover, they might turn a locomotive into a road slug.
@@nekomasteryoutube3232 CSX did that to a lot of GP 35s and GP 30s
@@YourLocalHistorian Then again I imagine by that time, they're pretty old locomotives, so why not use them for something else that doesnt require an expensive rebuild.
they only would do that if the can was beyond repair, as most would just be put back together as if nothing happened.
Was it called as 'slug'?
FUN FACT. Canadian National and Canadian Pacific's E and F B units had primitive control stands in them so they could be shunted under their own power.
Neither Canadian road had any E b-units.
I think all B-units had that.
That they did. They were called hostler controls, and like any locomotive they could be moved individually at an engine terminal or in a repair facility.
I have no idea why not all of them had such controls
I wondered about this. Without any sort of controls of their own they would have to be shunted with another locomotive. Not terribly convenient.
I just love A-B-A or A-B-B-A combos
A man of culture i see
What about the legendary A-B-B-B-A set?
@@InventorZahran A-B-B-A-A-B-B-A-C.
Key lady moment. Swedish people moment.
@@InventorZahran6 unit A B B B B A lashup was common in chicago in the early years.
B units are used on Donner pass with rotary snow plows
Huh...forgot about those. Can't remember if they're motive power or generators, though. I know the plows aren't self propelled, but their slugs might be
@@nathanschmidt4889 I think they act as both
Just generators. Rotaries fan blades are powered by traction motors, from which the b units (referred to as "snails") are the power source for. The whole setup is moved by locomotives controlled from the snow plows.
@@richardjayroe8922 Neither actually. Those B-units are snails. Unlike a slug which is “no engine,” snails are “no motor.” The name comes from the fact the “shell” is still in place, while slugs are typically low-slung. The snails were used to power the rotaries after they were converted to diesel operation. Notice how the snails are where a tender used to be, and the lack of steam. They still have no means of propulsion, so they’re still pushed by locomotives. I believe Amtrak’s HEP B-units are also snails, as they were meant to just supply HEP on trains where a locomotive was not equipped, like an SDP40F
Incidentally, the Milwaukee road had a few ABA F-unit sets where the B-unit _is_ a slug, evident by a distinct lack of fuel tanks
@@russellgxy2905 So much for standardisation . . . . from a modeller's perspective, a prototype for anything and everything . . .
I would do anything to get a GEVO B Unit
yeah your getting blocked 😭🙏
@@vuurvrproductions4656 I imagined a P42 with a B unit 🗿
How about a SD70ACe B Unit!
@@TexasSoCalRailfan9021 and I would do anything to make sure that never happens
@@thedesigner00I would do anything to ensure it happens
I cannot believe that Spamton G Spamton was the salesman’s for the B unit on all the big locomotive builders, bro must’ve really been raking in that cash
Hey! Is your [diesel-electric locomotive] not powerful enough? Add a B-unit from [hyperlink blocked] and double your [horsepower]! It'll only cost [$4.99] and looks [way better] than a second cab unit. Don't be a [little sponge], use B-units like a [big shot] railroad!
Oh... That's the worst name I have ever heard.
Raking the kromer
My dad was a conductor/brakeman for Santa Fe. In his tenure, he called them slugs. He was too late to the a unit and b unit world. He didn’t like them. Especially when the head end was bad order and the slug wasn’t a replacement leading the consist.
I forgot to mention he was Bakersfield to Barstow where lots of power was needed up front and as helpers.
Slugs and B-units are different things normally, but it probably varies by railroad. Slug, as I've heard, is a locomotive with no cab or engine, only traction motors. B-units have an engine and motors, just no cab. SLugs are meant for shunting an low-speed work because at slow speeds, the engine will generate more power than the motors in the A-unit can use, so a slug gives it more motors to use that power.
@@patrickread5455That's probably the best explanation of that. You learn something new every day I guess
@patrickread5455 slugs are also weighted down with concrete blocks for the lack of engine to get every single pound of that tractive effort
Also unlike some B units (depending on who ordered it), slugs can't move on their own. They need their "mother" engine since that's where they get all their power from
@@this51man Another critical difference is cabs. B-units are essentially cabless locos, but many slugs have cabs! CSX converted most of their GP30’s into slugs, but kept their cabs in place. Crews seem to like them as they can lead a train without a rumbling prime mover behind them. In theory, you could couple a B-unit to a cab-slug and run a train that way
My favorite diesel locomotive has always been the EMD F and E units, we currently own a 7.5 gauge A&B Southern set for our outdoor railroad.
4:20 Supposedly ATSF wanted a B40-8B to go with their B40-8Ws, but it would’ve costed the same as a B40-8W so they didn’t.
420 nice
@@therealrailfangamingboiwhat?
@@DanTDMJace if you know you know
Nah that crazy
@@DanTDMJace It’s a marijuana joke
0:08, POV: Mattel Destroying Thomas & Friends.
Just as an interesting sidenote: In eastern Europe, especially russia, the term "booster" means a frame with only traction motors and balast (no cab but also no engine). This booster is connected to the main locomotive by power cables in series with its own motors. This basically doubles adhesion and given there are twice as many motors in series it means that the entire unit has double the tractive effort with half the speed. They are only used as shunters.
Yes. What the Americans call a slug.
Surprised you didn't Segway into talking about slugs. How the problem went from needing more horsepower to needing more traction.
There was a book I have which I can no longer find, which showed a 1965 color photograph of an A-B-B-B-A unit (or something like that) in Albuquerque which the author claimed will never be seen again. I really wish I could find out where I stashed that book.
The ATSF theme song lives rent free in my head
Yeah, what did happen to B-units?!?
scraped or converted
2:56
Why produce locomotives without cabs? They're less useful, if anything
TL;DR, the railroads realized that booster units were stupid. You pay just as much as you would for a cabbed unit, and utilization is poor because they can't operate autonomously. So, your two-unit train reaches its destination, and gets split up, and now you need two cabbed units. The power desk can't do anything with the booster, except maybe swap it for a cabbed unit from another consist, which is a waste of time. Better to just have a cab in every unit since you're paying the same anyway, and then any unit can be used for any purpose any time.
The B unit was created for one purpose but quickly evolved into a specific use locomotive, the one we all immediately think about - as a “building block” of rail power. However, its specific use wound up evolving into something else over time. Henceforth B units became a motive power dead-end. That the concept survived as long as it did to encompass third generation motive power such as GP60Bs and M420Bs shows how long it takes for change to happen with managerial thinking.
B units are pretty iconic. I usually think of the F and E units when I see B units. Railroads definitely got creative with B units from the streamliners. Classic B units
0:01 the streamlined FEC paint scheme was perfection
Flawda FTW 🌴💯
I remember when Family Lines (Clinchfield steam no. 1, 4-6-0), ran the Baker Special in 1978, with 2 F-7B units. They had a modified diesel control stand in the steam licomotive, to operate them.
I don’t have any Soo Line F7A units on my layout but I do have two F7Bs. In the Soo Line tight-fisted power scheme of things in the early 1970’s it was common to pair up SD40’s and Dash-2s with an F7A or even an F7B for better unit utilization. That practice stopped only when the Soo started taking delivery of the GP38-2s and they finally had enough power to run their trains in a more conventional fashion. The ends of an F7B are a modelers paradise that are always overlooked. There are no pilot plates so all the plumbing is open. MU and steam lines, cut bars, sand hoses can all be modeled. The control stand in an F7B is for “local control” so a hostler can move them around the servicing area to make up a consist-nothing more. A relative of mine said he’d rather grab a switcher to shuffle units than to actually use the hostler controls . I remember him saying they were not designed for use by humans. It must have been interesting to be a brakeman on the ground and watch a seemingly unmanned brick rolling around.
I've seen photos of those hostler cabs and agree they weren't designed for humans! I think they only had the first 3 throttle notches available.
Still my faves are BN’s B30-7A cabless units. Not even a BN fan, but they look awesome.
I remember in the 1980s Via Rail refurbished some EMD A units at their shop in Montreal. The B units weren't refurbished and were either scrapped or sold.
Several A & B units, EMD IIRC, were used by GO Transit, a Toronto area commuter service. They were used to provide electrical power to the train and the A could be used for the cab at one end, as GO trains have a cab at each end. I believe they were ex Ontario Northland units.
You should also do a video on "mother and slug" and "Cow and calf" configurations of paired motive power.
I’ve always asked myself this. I once found fanart of an ALC-42 B-Unit and I thought it looked pretty nice.
I sent it to a train meme page and got a resounding: “Absolutely the **** not”.
That would look so good though
10 bucks that that train meme page is full of anti-Charger foamers
The Airo APV's are basically B-units
Link to the image, please?
The LIRR had a strange B-Unit in the late 90s on a train a few times, I never knew what it was until now, cool info
Some b-unit paint schemes rhyme well with normal funits
Interesting presentation. Even though a vast majority had operator's controls and we're self-propelled, having a cab just made everything easier. As the operator's station in was located on one side of unit near a door, in which the operator had to lean out of to see.
I loved the oscillating light on the front of the engine when I was a child. It fascinated me! 😊😊
80 yr old railfan in MN 🥶...we had #9 r.r. in St Paul... oscillating lights on trains,fire apparatus still get my attention💯... tho' on trains it's the ditch lights...👍👍
Many B-units had hostler controls, and could move independently of A-units, at least at low speed. The Rock Island's two AB-6s were actually considered motor cars by EMC, hence the lack of an "E" designation. The same applied to the AA-6 built for Missouri Pacific, which was similar to the AB-6s, except for having a streamlined front end like normal E6As. Numerous railroads converted road switchers into B-units over the years. Sometimes, the cab would remain, but the interiors (seats, controls, and other cab accommodations) would be removed. This happened with a number of D&RGW GP30s and GP35s, a BN GP38, the CSXT BQ23-7s, and a bunch of UP SD40-2s. As for units that lost their cabs (usually to wreck damage), the list includes a Missouri Pacific U30C (temporary, while waiting to get an EMD cab applied), several AT&SF SD45s and SD45-2s, an SSW B36-7, and a miscellaneous bunch of BN units, including several GPs of various models and a couple SD40-2s. If memory serves, BN was unusual for having a GP38B with its cab structure intact, as well as a GP38-2 with the cab actually removed.
I really love these videos. They sort of remind me of bedtime stories I heard when I was a kid, always about trains. These videos are super relaxing, especially the ones talking about older history!
1:55 As a Coloraod Springs resident and a museum tour guide, I got an ear full of just how "ugly" the AB Rockisland units were from older residents in the area.😅
On the Milwaukee Road: As intercity passenger service faded they broke up F7 ABBA sets. They sent most of the B units to freight pools. The displaced E9 A units were used to support the Chicago commuter service. I saw this when commuting to college.
The B-unit had one more reason for existence in the early diesel era: union rules. Unions argued that if a locomotive had a cab, it needed its own crew. Since MU controls didn't exist on steam locomotives, there wasn't usually an exception for MU'ed diesels unless the railroad had an electrified division. Railroads bypassed this argument by using B-units and / or linking diesels with drawbars instead of couplers, until contracts were renegotiated.
There is a B unit in the middle of Dallas at “John’s Cars” A collector of actual Amtrak trains.
I remember during the late 80s I taken VIA from Montreal to Vancouver. When we arrived in Vancouver we had 2 F40s 1 F7 B unit and 1 steam generator car… it was quite interesting..
I remember that the train in Cars had a B unit, but I had no clue what it was. Thanks for explaining it.
Great Railroad history review. Thanks for posting
awesome. so sad to see the santa fe at the end so faded as it was a top of the line 90s 2000s engine im sure. very weird to see that fading/aging but then again ive been inside for 5 years also fading so its a parrallel of sorts.
the spamton references are just amazing
You sound like you live a [$4.99] life!
You always answer the questions I have about railroading I don't know how to find the answer to.
Scrumptious video as usual J-Money !
The B Movie.
I would have mentioned the EMD DDs, some of the last and most terrifying B units. Union Pacific wanted more power from their boosters so they ordered twin-engine sixteen-wheel B units, the last of which - the DD40 - is to this day the most powerful diesel-electric locomotive ever at 6,600 horsepower. UP originally ordered the DDs as B units only because they were concerned about having a four-axle truck leading a train and planned to sandwich them between GP35s.
Don't forget the GP35 had quite a few B-units (DD35's) in a sort of way before the DD35A was fully introduced
IMHO they went when the railroads understood that freight was the railroad future and an all engine consist made for better versatility
As a railfan from and living in England it's fascinating to learn about the motive power and operating practices of other countries. I really enjoyed this video.
4:52 The BU's from the 1990's were rebuilt SAR 600 class locomotives and the XRB's from the 2000's were new builds after XR's 557 - 559 (XR's 550 - 555 were rebuilt 1st (X32 - X35) and 2nd series (X38 + X40) X class locomotives with G class 16-645's and XR556 (was meant to be rebuilt from X36) never happened)
Sell them to utility companies to scatter about within the grid to kick in when generating plants are struggling to prevent brownouts. Or sell them to municipalities to use as emergency generators for emergency services departments.
holy moley 10 seconds in and we already got trainbuild
thank you
I remember when I was a kid, the extra long grain and coal trains that CN and CP would run out to BC would often have units in the middle, with what was turned a "robot" leading the middle locomotives. From what I understand, its job was to control the middle locomotives so they shared motive power properly. As electronics and sensors got better, the functionality was integrated into the locomotives themselves. The robot itself was painted to look like a locomotive, except it was something like half as tall, and didn't actually have an engine (or didn't look like it had one).
1:34 "Are you sure we need 2 A units AND a B unit to haul ONE tanker?"
"You forgot it's carrying uranium"
"We would need a whole new car what?"
"Liquid uranium"
When I was a kid back in the late 50's, my Dad was a supervisor over stationary boilers and power plants at Mayport NAS in FLA. Along side one mooring, were picket and what seemed like Fletcher class destroyers, several abreast, there was a truckless, non-descript RR B unit up on a timber foundation that provided shore power to all those tied up ships. I remember being in it with him while it was running, quite noisy, but both sides had been cut making a large swing up window to look out. It was there for quite a few years until real shore power was established from the power company. I was just a kid, but I remember following him as he crossed from ship to ship checking power, and how narrow the passage way in the superstructure was from starboard to port, then across the gang way to the next, imagining these in combat in WW II.
Fascinating. That quick glimpse of CNR's converted 'Blind Mice" (or blind beetles?) was a fun reminder of a very odd example.
I live near the upper Mississippi in the driftless area and I saw 3 b units on a CN consist. One of them was running. It was an amazing sight to see
When you Briefly went over Australia you missed something, Australian National converted 4 ex SAR 600 Class to have no cab and run with there Ex Commonwealth Railways ALF class (formerly AL class, the 2nd cab removed) and where trialed as ALF-BU-ALF, this was great and all but it was very common for the locomotive to catch on fire, all since stored and then scrapped, the ALFs still exist though, you should do a small diesel oddity video on them. Good video as usual
0:09 "Throw out your smelly and dirty steam engines and get this shiny new Streamliner that goes really fast" That Locomotive hit Thomas away from the camera!!😂😂
I think there's either a visual or voice-over error at the A plus B unit power output segment.
if it's 1600 x2, it should be 3200 hp. or if 3600 hp is the output, it shoudl be 1800 x2 hp.
otherwise I would like to say: so great to see another vid on the channel. :)
The EA's A and B unit were each rated for 1800 hp, idk where I got 1600 from lol. Went ahead and corrected that in the pinned comment. Thanks for watching and letting me know!
Really great editing!
They are still semi around, they still use yard slugs in some places. The slugs don't have engines, they simply use the power generated from the loco to drive traction motors. I'm not aware of any road use for slugs though
with the demise of the steel industry coming soon if you are 50 years behind.....
Great video Jared!!! Love the information on this!!!!
We went to Jared ❤
1:13 I too believe in Shimarin Supremacy.
(fun fact: I actually have the very same collapsible grill that she bought in the original version of the scene)
in the early 1970s the HAYSI railroad in Virginia purchased a former Clinchfield F7b, mounted a control stand inside the carbody and used it as their primary motive power throughout the 70s, the locomotive is currently at the tennessee valley railroad museum
The F-units really are my favorite diesels so I have about as many B-units as A-units. The combination of A and B units for freight and passenger trains just seem to be the perfect visual representation of diesel era trains. I do have other diesels dating up to 1965 so I can run more modern locos when I feel like it, but even then I really like the appearance of F-7’s, F-9’s and SD-9’s. I guess I just like the earlier diesels by EMD, mainly.
Would love to see a version of this video for slugs
I really love the old passenger service, pre-Amtrak especially, nothing against Amtrak. B-units run on my layout. I wish I could find a model of Rock Island 750 and 751. Thx for the video.
I have two O Scale AB6 locos; one is a three rail powered and the other is a partially built two rail dummy brass loco.
Here in italy we never had diesel B units, but in the 50s there has been a small production of E322/324 ELECTRIC B unit. Almost all have been scrapped though
Considering American freight trains tend to have like, 4 to 6 A units in them, I'm kinda surprised that they don't have more B units.
I mean, look at some of the shots you posted, they have 3 or 4 head engines.
Though, speaking from the British perspective, All of our Engines have a cab at both end, unless it's part of some sort of streamline consist. (in which case, the engine at either end has a cab.)
Ask yourself this: what happens when you reach your destination, and now you need 4 or 5 individual locomotives for local service or other tasks? Where do you get them from? The incoming train only has one cabbed unit and a bunch of boosters that you don't need.
@@ErickC As someone in Britain, I guess that is something I didn't think about.
1. Currently, most British trains are passenger, and most of those are fixed consists.
2. Most British cargo trains are also fixed consist, you might just roll the head engine around to the other end (with a passing lane, which is why the engine has a cab at both ends)
3. Looking back at the past, the freight engine would drop off the cargo, then pick up the next job, yard engines, usually specific shunters like the Class 08 would split up and move the cargo wagons around.
If the prime mover is going to stick around and do shunting work, then sure, having it being able to split up into half a dozen individual locomotives to do the yard work does make sense.
Thomas getting hit by a diesel train 0:07
XD
Jared the BN B30-7As that were exported to Brazil were 4010, 4013, 4050, and 4051, among others and were sold to America Latina Logistica. Great video Jared!
If you don’t know what that image is. It’s a train crossing the Potomac River on the girder bridge. heading into Harpers Ferry West Virginia. (0:48)
Then swung around to seemed like slugs became popular in some rail lines having 1 diesel feeding power to 1-2 slugs that were just motor wheelsets and weights without a prime mover...
The three Australian XRB units are not always in storage. Their owners, Pacific National, sometimes store older units subject to requirements.
2:16 WHERE IS THIS THAT IS A WHOLE LOT OF DIAMONDS
I think Santa Fe got GP-60B's for cost savings. They ran them from L.A. to Chicago on UPS trains. They just kept them in the middle of those lash-ups.
I have seen F B-units used with road switchers on the Soo Line in the 1970s.
Oddly enough, I will point this out. We tend to call on the road slugs nowadays. Only the really steep lines tend to have them running around, though that's the reason why you will see a decent portion of them actually working the Nixon yard in Augusta.
At CN we had engineless units that you call slugs slaves and these sets were used for hump service
They still exist today. They just look different, like locomotives without a driver's cab. And they are coupled in front of the locomotives with a driver's cab. An example of this would be BNSF GP60B #346.
As a Train Buff . The B-Unit always completes my lash ups !
if you are modeling in the early 70's (my pike is set at 50 years prior) its about time to scrap your A-units, but keep the boosters active like the SP did.
this is some real quality stuff mate! Have you considered doing a more rolling stock-focused video, like evolution of boxcars or tofc/intermodal?
The Booster reference from Mario RPG took me back. 😊
I see you've indicated some of the B-units we've got at the Illinois Railway Museum. Last year, we had an A-B-B-A set of E-units running, that was hoot, especially when we got permission to do a high-speed mail pickup.
There are also some Russian 3-unit and 4-unit diesels and electrics, which are still being constructed!
Man, my first time hearing about this locomotive
So fascinating
Great video, thank you. Just the other day, seeing B-Unit's I wondered about them.
In India, these type of B units are called Generator cars and usually use up diesel and provide power for the train in the case of small loss of powers in certain remote areas. Unknown to general public is that when Panto fails to get electric power to engine, these generator cars provide enough power to keep the train moving until they reach next section of power line. They are rarely used only for certain remote areas where it is a known problem of sudden power failures. 😅
I could see the concept of a B unit coming back as a battery locomotive to tie into an MU. Instead of venting braking energy out through the roofs as heat it could be dumped into the B(attery) unit and consumed later to speed the train back up.
I love the Spamton referance! Really made me laugh!
Side note: "CP Rail" is a hell of an abbreviation 💀
it probably doesnt help that the railroad was part of a campaign called "every child matters", which was a fundraiser for missing children. but having that and "CP" on the front of the train certainly is not a good look
I actually caught a B Unit on the BNSF Ottumwa Subdivision just yesterday!
I believe most if not all EMD B-Units had "hostler's controls" which would rev the engine enough to move it around shop tracks.
Perhaps one of the most unusual B-Units was the Haysi Railroad's F7B (a rebuilt F3B) that had a windshield and full A-Unit controls installed in the early 1970s. At last check it is at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, operable but in rough shape. Railroad Model Craftsman's article on the Clinchfield in late 1976 featured this unusual locomotive.
They didn't all have hostler controls, the ATSF GP60Bs didn't.
just found this channel and got very pleasantly jumpscared by Spamton
1:28 There Goes a Train footage!
It was also in “loaded for war” a Santa Fe documentary
The B units down here in Australian had a classification of XRB class locomotives
Atsf and CP had rebuilt some wrecked units into B units and Santa Fe bought GP60's as B units which were unusual in the early 1990's.
Love the 334 sneaking in there. Special unit to me
Enjoying your videos! Greetings from over the big pond Austria :)
A locomotive which helps in back/middle is known as a banker. From the U.K. style
you always make my day better!
BTW, there's another kind of B-unit that's still running. A lot of lease units are marked "B-unit only" as crew facilities like the toilet were removed rather than refurbished when the locomotive was retired from Class I service and sold to the lease company.
That was some clag on the last train