Yes it has been quite some time since a GP15 was built but, that one is a beauty. Nice catch.
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| Posted by on January 23, 2009 | |
Is that a hood unit for an industrial kitchen in place of the air filters?!
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What an unusual looking locomotive! Love the classic EMD look but what is up with the huge silver box. Anyone know what the mods done to the unit are?
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| Posted by K100DS on January 23, 2009 | |
What's up with the reporting mark? "BB" is the reporting mark for Buckingham Branch Railroad.
Does this unit actually have an EMD engine under the hood, or is it a Cat engine like the GP15D?
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Nice builders photo! The large filters are for the harsh environment of sand, dirt and grit. Paper filters will plug up to fast causing starvation of combustion and intake air for the engine compartment. The Saudi's had F units with large obtrusive filter boxes on the roof in simular fashion.
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| Posted by lumpum on January 23, 2009 | |
Those filters are for the desert. They keep the sand out.
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SNIM is a mining railroad in the west African country of Mauritania. The entire railroad is located in the Sahara desert, those boxes behind the cab are giant filter boxes designed to filter out sand from being sucked into the desert. This is probably the first and last time this unit will see snow.
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A great catch - thanks for sharing! Too bad these folks hadn't caught the NS fire sale of all their GP15s 2 years ago.
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| Posted by on January 24, 2009 | |
I wrote a detailed blog article on the SNIM operations: http://www.oil-electric.com/search/label/SNIM
Be SURE to read the RAILWAY AGE link, an article written by an independent contractor hired to
reassemble these locomotives for GM and place them in service with the SNIM. Amazing problems
to deal with in a sandy environment, including sealing the caboose to prevent the crew from drowning
in sand dust.
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BB is the Buckingham Branch's reporting marks but in this case the BB stands for 4-axles, or at leased my experience with European trains has taught me that. Bo-Bo is a four axle locomotive and a Co-Co is a six axle. As stated above this is an African railroad, which do not have reporting marks.
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