Engines of Union Pacific Episode 4 GE U50 and U50C

[Music] silver spikes a hundred years ago we're a million miles of history in the sun we're the union pacific and our stories hello everyone this is automatic once again and welcome to episode 4 of vengeance of union pacific now before we start this episode i would just like to say that i am so sorry this took so long to come out the reason why this episode took so long to come out was because i just lost interest after making the third episode not to mention i wasn't proud of the third episode so i didn't really continue it for a while i almost did but i kept pushing it off but either way the episode is finally out so let's be happy about that all right now with that said let's get into this episode already today we will be looking at another dynamic duo of locomotives and the engines are of course the u50 and u50c locomotives oh geez these locomotives are going to have quite an interesting story to talk about well let's not waste any more time with this because if you've heard about these engines before you probably know what we'll be going into here but anyways with that said let's stop wasting time and start talking about the union pacific u50 and u50c locomotives this is gonna be one of those engines isn't it the story of these engines starts in 1963. the union pacific was looking into the idea of buying more new locomotives for more power on heavier freight trains on their rosters they had a selection of all kinds of engines now including the dd35 engines but now they were looking for something a bit stronger and more powerful so the up turned to general electric for a new locomotive design the new locomotive would be a mix of different parts and components from of older locomotive designs they based the design on the successful u-25b from 1959 and so they based the design off that locomotive they took two units of that engine and put them together as one unit similar to the dd-35 units for the wheel arrangement they used trucks that were recycled off scrapped gen 1 and gen 2 gtel turbines for the wheelbases with all these parts put together they were able to form the iconic geu 50 locomotive with the first one being built in october of 1963. this would be the next new locomotive made for the roster just a year or so before the dd-35a was constructed the u-50s had a length of 83 feet and 6.5 inches an ar wheel arrangement of quadruple b they had four trucks they were rated for 5 000 horsepower they had a dual ge fdl-16 prime mover eight traction motors and a diesel electric transmission as for name specifications the use stood for u-boat as they were part of the u-boat class and 50 stood for model 50. when looking at the engine some might say the engine looks rather square or weirdly shaped the ge u50 was essentially an experimental high horsepower diesel locomotive originally requested by union pacific in the early 1960s who likewise asked competing builders alco and emd to produce similar models the ying pacific received three of them at first in october of 1963 number 31-33 besides up the southern pacific also placed an order and received three as well between may and june of 1964 numbered 8500 to 8502 however in later years they would be renumbered to 95.50 to 95.52 and being renumbered again to 99.50 to 99.52 the southern pacific only purchased three units for their roster due to not being the most satisfying units ordered and were usually sidelined the union pacific was much more happy with their three units and they soon decided to buy 20 more units for their roster 12 more units were delivered to union pacific between july and september 1964. these ones being numbered 34 to 45 while the last batch of eight units were finally delivered between may and august of 1965 numbered 46 to 53. this in total brought the pack of engines to 23 units for their roster with the three units from southern pacific this brings it to a total of 26 geu 50 units constructed [Music] now even though up and sp both purchase the same engines that doesn't mean they're the exact same models even though they're both the same models of u50 they did display a couple differences for example the spu-50s had a cab door and headlights in the hood beneath the front windows whereas the u50s from the u.p didn't have this design besides differences it wasn't hard to tell which was which i mean honestly you'd have to be a dumbass to mix them up every upu-50 had the same fuel system which was a standard fuel system except for up number 52 which was delivered with a cummins pt fuel system and rated for 5600 horsepower my guess for why it was delivered like this was because the up couldn't help but experiment with as much as they could regardless number 52 eventually had a standard fuel system installed in october of 1966 now rated for 5 000 horsepower just like the others during their years of service both railroads gave the units nicknames up called theirs u-boats likely because of the engine they were based on sp however called their units baby hueys which is the name of a cartoon character with the same name you can look up more info about this character in the description below if you want now let's fast forward three years from here to november 1969. union pacific despite being happy with their u50s wanted to try again with another new locomotive design although they had plenty of strong engines like their dd35as u50s c855s and centennials which we'll cover in later episodes they still wanted to see how much power they could get on their roster enter the u50c the cousin of the u50 general electric would also be the ones to construct them as well these would be similar to the original u50s but with a few differences and quote unquote improvements just like the original u50s the u50cs had trucks that were recycled from scrapped gtel turbines this time from the gen 3 turbines these units would instead sport the six-axle trucks now further information on what makes them different these engines were rated for 5 000 horsepower just like the original u50s they had a cc arr wheel arrangement two trucks a length of 79 feet a dual ge fdl-12 prime mover and a turbocharger for name specifications you stood for the same thing 50 stood for the same thing however the c stood for the truck configuration meaning it had six axle trucks development of the u50c was to the same up specification that produced the emd dda40x units a requirement for a high power locomotive for the railroad's high speed freight trains the span bolster quadruple b design was not suited to the service and the requirement for power at speed rather than low speed hauling meant six powered axles would be sufficient as a result the u50c was what they got out of this union pacific was the only railroad that bought these units 40 units were purchased and built between november 1969 and november 1971 numbered 5 000 to 50 39. if we take a look at a u50 and a u50c side by side we can see the differences between these units the design incorporated extensive weight saving features ge replaced the 16-cylinder prime movers of the u-50 with advanced 12-cylinder engines which were lighter and shorter the engines were reversed in orientation compared to the u50 so the radiator sections were at the middle of the locomotive instead of the ends of the car body the shorter length required a wider radiator section design as on the u33b and u33c locomotives which were also locomotives built by ge because of the u50c's name some people called the u50 either a u50d or u50b because of the truck design but this was incorrect as the railroad used neither of these names for the u50 so thanks to the u50c for this i guess the u15 u50c were equipped with leslie s5trf airhorns here are a few samples [Music] huh although being a newer design the u50c was not successful at all the weight saving measures taken to make the locomotive able to use six axles rather than eight caused problems especially in the electrical wiring aluminum wires instead of regular copper had been used which proved prone to overheating the u50cc had many electrical fires as well as other failures the u.p rewired one unit with copper experimentally and considered having an outside contractor replace the wiring on all the units but decided that the problems as a whole were too serious the trucks suffered from stress cracks in the cast frames the engines frequently developed low oil pressure the cooling water leaked and the dynamic brake grids were prone to melting down following these failures the 1970s would not be a good time for either of these units around the 1970s the energy crisis would occur and this would be one of the factors that would lead to the end of these units the income pacific would also gain new engines that were way more reliable than these two different units in 1973 and 74 20 of the original union pacific u50s were withdrawn from service and were traded into ge for u30cs this now led to only three u50s still in use on the roster but they would still remain in service up until april 1977 this was the year that all the classic u50s finally met their fate this year union pacific finally retired their classic u50s the southern pacific u-50s lasted up until this point as well the sp also decided it was time for their units to go and finally retired them sadly these last six units were all sold off for scrap no examples survived today this now leads the u50c being the last one standing but not for long in 1976 a business downtown would happen to the units and would be the end of them the units were officially withdrawn never to return to service however five were lent out shortly as stationary power generators during a coal miner's strike in early 1978 the rest would remain in storage until the day came and by 1977 through 1978 all units were sold off for scrap leading to the end of this legacy [Music] although it's sad these engines no longer exist they'll still always be remembered in models games or as hardcore rail fans one thing for sure they sure left their mark in the union pacific the great big roland railroad thanks for watching this episode of engines of union pacific sorry it had taken so long since the last episode but i'll try my best to continue sooner next time we will be discussing the history of the alco century 855. feel free to tell me anything in the comments that i might have missed on the u50s and u50cs that i might have missed and if you want feel free to give me information for the next episode and i might use it until then stay tuned for more thanks for watching this video and with that said this is automatic signing off [Music] through our nation's heartland on a river made of steel from the shores of california where the blue pacific leaves to the father of the waters flowing down to new orleans we have boards to span a steel that links our nation east and west we're the union pacific doing what we do the best from new orleans to seattle is 3 000 miles away across the rivers plains and mountains and we're going there today we were there to bridge the rivers when our country still was new we're the union pacific we can handle it for you [Music]

Channel: OttoMatic

Views: 17,636

Rating: 4.7951636 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: m-0XvlHi8lc

Length: 17min 25sec (1045 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 20 2021