DateTime
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Author
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Posting
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11/17/1999 4:05
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Bill Kuebler |
As these questions
continue to arise, perhaps it's time to mention the book, "NP Color Pictorial, Volume 3,"
by Four Ways West Publications, November 1998. When I wrote it, I had you F-unit fans in mind, especially
those of you who ask such questions
in the course of trying to accurately model NP Fs. Thus, the book contains photos and tables intended
to put to rest most of these
questions. There's too much info there to write here in the time I
have available, so I'll just mention
some of it. I'll be the first to
say that not every detail or conceivable question about NP F-units is covered in the book, but I
think most of the important ones are
adequately covered. Also, attention is given to important
"exceptions to the rule(s)"
regarding NP Fs. I did not cover such items as roof overhangs, the modern vs. the older windshields, or the
square-corner vs. round corner doors.
These items were industry standard on NP units, so I left them alone
in hopes that a good NP modeler would
already be familiar, at the least, with EMD's standard practices. Instead, I covered things some of which
you're asking about here. Covered
items include: painting and lettering details, shown in chronological order of changes; louvers
(not industry standard on the NP!),
headlight arrangements (definitely not industry standard, and not the
same on various models, either, or
even within a model group); horns, whistles, and other appliances; and grilles (again, not always industry
standard, by model phase); plus
several notable "exceptions" to all these, mostly thanks to wrecks.
As for horns and whistles, I know of no instance on the NP (i.e.,
pre-merger) where any F-3, 5, 7, or 9
cab unit had a multi-tone whistle other than a Nathan. Blats, yes, on the pre-F-9s--all F-3s through 7s, in
fact, originally had these. These
were the standard horns that EMD equipped pre-F-9 units with unless something else was ordered by the
purchasing road. When these horns were
replaced with a multi-tone one, it was almost always a Nathan P-3, and
in any case, a Nathan. For what it's worth, I grew up in Fargo,
on the mainlines of both GN and NP.
Not too many other places where close comparisons could be made
between the two roads or where their
main lines were so close together. For me, the sound of a whistle meant the difference between
wasting my time and energy (i.e., riding
my bike at what must have been 90 m.p.h.) to see a two-million-ton GN
ore train pulled by a pair of units
with half-burned out traction motors at a whopping six miles per hour (their hotshots went twice that speed!), or
wisely spending time and, if
necessary, great energy to see an NP 603 roar through town at 40-plus with throttle in a notch somewhere
from six to eight. GN units had
something other than Nathans, I think Leslies (multi-tone; can't
remember the type and don't care at
the moment); NP ones had Nathans. To put it mildly, the GN-Leslies were God-awful (especially when
the top tone was not sounding, which
seemed to happen a lot on the Billy Goat units) compared with the NP
ones, which were beautiful. It was
like the difference between a elephant's screech and one's favorite music.
For what it's worth, the GN's horns were surpassed in awfulness only
by the Q's E-units which showed up
now and then on the Western Star. Those whistles made a sound straight from hell, and after they
left town each time, the poor Fargo
police would be out chasing all the dead people back into Sunset
Gardens Cemetery. [You steam fans out there relax; the
following comments do not displace the
immutable truth that steam is simply fantastic in all respects!] One of the most beautiful post-steam-era
sounds I ever heard in my life was
when NP No. 26 would leave Fargo at 1:42 a.m., if it was OT, which was
almost always. As the Fs accelerated
and the train blew the whistle (yes, I know it was a horn; 'scuse me.) for 1st St. by the river, and then for
all the wig-wag crossings in
Moorhead, especially on a warm summer night, I was in heaven. One memorable night in particular comes to
mind. I slept by an open window (no air
conditioning) one hot, hot night in August 1965 (upper 90s that
night), in pure misery, stewing in my
own sweat. I finally got to sleep about midnight, but as No. 26 left town at 1:42, I woke up. With
that symphony, my misery was almost
gone, the residual displeasure caused only by my being in bed rather
than trackside. The NP was more than a mile from our
house at the time, whereas the GN was only
a few blocks away. Nevertheless, no Empire Builder's Leslie/K-Mart
multi-tone ever did that for me.
("Attention K-Mart shoppers, blue light special in aisle five, garden hoses and Leslie horns!")
If I had ever heard an NP F-unit blow a
Leslie multi-, I probably would have died of a heart attack, even at
that young age. An interesting thing about the NP's
Nathans comes to mind. Whenever the
engineer would vary the amount of pull on the whistle cord, of course,
the three tones would not necessarily
all sound. The further he pulled the cord,
the more tones sounded. And the order in which they sounded mattered,
too, and was quite consistent from
one unit to the next. First was the middle tone, then came the top and bottom tones. What was so
neat was that he could use just one
or two tones for a crossing in town if he so desired. (NP Fargo Divn
Special Instructions prohibited
whistling for the three downtown streets except in emergencies.) That way, he could warn the foolish and errant
pedestrian without blowing all the
elderly residents out of their beds in Dacotah Hotel, ensconced above J.C. Penneys and alongside the NP.
Even better, the one or two-tone sound
of the Nathan wasn't stupid. It sounded okay and acceptable for the
intended purpose. The GN's always
sounded stupid when less than three tones sounded, and barely acceptable when all tones sounded. As for Leslie mulit-toned horns (like
the GN ones) on NP Geeps, I never saw one
in real life (pre-BN) nor did I ever hear one that I know of, but I do
have but one or two color slides that
may show this rare phenomenon. In any case, if it ever happened pre-merger, it would have been quite unusual. The
statements made by others on this
site regarding the original blat horns on NP GP-7s are correct. Also, in my book I did not use the Nathan model
"P-3" designation. I simply
said "Nathan Air Chimes." Two reasons: this was what NP
officers and men called them,
including shop personnel, and there may have been some instances when a Nathan other than a P-3 was used. I ran
into some contradicting evidence on
this point. There's plenty
of F-unit headlight info in the book, too, maybe more than one would care to know. There were several
different headlight configurations,
depending on model, and in some cases there was a unique situation
on individual units within a model
group. For example, NP F-9A 7050A had a unique (for an F-9) headlight arrangement, as did F-7 6511A and F-5
6506C (after 1966!). By the way, I'm not a modeler. To those
who are and who try to accurately
represent NP equipment in whatever scale, my hat's off to you. You do
all of us NP fans a great service.
And, you're asking the right questions. Hope I've returned the favor by helping you along in your endeavors. End of soap box and NP commercial. (No
book commercial, however; I've already
been paid my royalties.) F3,
F7, F9, details, modifications, sources
Compiler C Frissell |