Milwaukee Road class EP-3
For class EP-3 of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road) is by the Baldwin Locomotive Works and Westinghouse developed for passenger traffic in the Cascade Range electric locomotives. Although they had good handling characteristics and were popular with the train drivers, the entire operating time was marked by technical problems. They were among the first electric locomotives of the Milwaukee Road, which were retired.
Design
When the Milwaukee Road in 1917 decided to electrify their Coast Division, which it intended to purchase locomotives from General Electric. However, the United States Railroad Administration ( USRA ) ordered that the order of electric locomotives should be divided between the companies General Electric and Westinghouse Electric. This had the consequence that the vehicle 15 acquired in the form of five EP- 2 "Bi- Polars " from General Electric and ten - were purchased from Westinghouse - namely, the number of the EP 3.
The EP-3 locomotives, like the were designed for the EP-2 for the same requirements, differed significantly from the Geschwisterloks of General Electric. The appearance was smoother and less prominent. All electrical equipment was back in a square box ( boxcab ) housed, which was, however, not as pronounced as with the EP -1. The axle assembly in the two chassis with three driving wheels 68 inches high corresponded to the Pacific Design in Dampflokomotivbau and met the requirements for higher speeds.
The most notable aspect of the design was the engine construction. The six per 566 hp traction motors were directly attached to the main frame on the drive axles. They drove these each have a hollow shaft drive on, in which a 15-inch in diameter steel pipe covered the wheel axle and was joined at the ends by steel springs with the wheel discs. The traction motors in turn displaced via in each case a toothed gearing, the hollow shaft to rotate. By this construction joints have been significantly reduced to the wheelsets through the otherwise unsprung weight bearing on them motor and also also saves superstructure. The only non-suspended parts of the chassis were thus the wheel sets itself This design was later in the PRR Class GG1 prominent application.
Design errors and remodeling
The Quills - hollow shafts vehicles mentioned passed between the end of 1919 and beginning of 1921 in operation and were given the operating numbers 10300-10309 were allocated mainly to the Mountain Division and obtained at the train drivers quickly large popularity. . They could effortlessly trains and above the formal top speed of 112 or 128 km / h drag. She slid not like the Boxcabs from the first generation and were much quieter than running the Bi - Polars.
However, some serious design flaws were apparent within one year. The locos were externally identical to the EP2 of New Haven, but heavier and it provided a weaker frame. In contrast to the brothers and sisters on the east coast, the locomotives of Milwaukee were always affected by broken axles and frame parts, cracked wheels and spokes and bent suspension springs. This was an embarrassment to the company Westinghouse, which had constructed the machines too easily and too rigid. In the engines, there was too little side clearance, which resulted in a strong wheel wear, and the frame broke under the high loads during rapid rides through the mountains.
1922 several meetings were conducted to discuss the measures for design improvements. The company Baldwin, who had carried out the construction along with Westinghouse, recommended a division of the frame into two parts, which would have led practically to a double locomotive. The Milwaukee Road 's Electrification Department at Reinier Beeuwkes came to a different conclusion and denied the recommendation to rebuild all ten machines in double locomotives. Instead, only the number 10301 was modified accordingly, but lack of success again dismantled for Einrahmenlok. Only after the conversion of a second locomotive is demonstrated successes: the entire series was rebuilt as it were to operate with only one cab and fitted with new wheels that are better kept the machines in the curves. The frames were completely rebuilt with stronger steel profiles.
Decommissioning
The locomotives never reached the standards that have been defined largely by their Geschwisterloks of General Electric. They prepared the technical departments of the Milwaukee Road regular headaches and were rebuilt during their service life five times. They were prone to derailments and their weight increased their consequences in addition. One of the 1939 renumbered in E10 -E19 locomotives, the E13, was destroyed in a derailment in Soudan (Montana) 1947. When the class EP-4 "Little Joe" was in the late 1940s in operation and the older locomotives were worn out by the intensive use in World War II, planned the charge of the electrical department to modernize the old - electric locomotives. The series EP-3 was not included in the program. Instead, the seven remaining locomotives 1952-1957 were asked gradually decommissioned and scrapped, as the following table illustrates: