Did the NS Engine 4610 (painted for Southern) have one or two snowplows? Where was the bell placed? What type horn did it have? Thanks, Bill Damewood

-- Bill Damewood (damewood@infi.net), July 01, 2002

Answers

The 4610 has two snowplows. One was replaced prior to the green repainting in 1994 because of some minor damage from a grade crossing accident. The bell is mounted on the underbody on the engineers side just ahead of the rear truck. The engine is, of course, designated and set as long hood forward. Most of the GP59's had Nathan K-type 5 chime horns; but from an engineers perspective, sitting in the cab with good earplugs in, it sounds more like a P-type. Part of that may be from the 4610 having what we sometimes call a "run-on" horn valve. Some of the straight pneumatic horn valves, like the one the 4610 had, failed to shut off cleanly when released. This caused the horn to trail off slowly, distorting the sound somewhat, and making clean whistle signals hard to do.

Ben Lee

-- Ben Lee (Bengineer7@aol.com), July 04, 2002.

I just wanted to know why the 4610 was painted green to begin with and was this locomotive originallty a southern unit or was it originally and NS locomotive

-- Kirby Grubb (ert10us@yahoo.com), July 09, 2002.

4610 is a GP59 model from EMD, now GMLG, and is too new to have been an original Southern unit when the merger occurred with N&W in 1982 to form the NS. It was painted in the Green scheme in the early 90s to commemorate what would have been the 100th anniversary of the Southern Railway. If Ben Lee sees this post, he can provide even more accurate 1st hand info.

-- Mike Garner (mgarner@mccroryconstruction.com), July 25, 2002.

4610 will be repainted by 5/22/04....wait and see what color!...the doors are being shut on the paint shop so it will be a surprise when it comes out Saturday AM....just in time for open house at deButts!

-- Alco Fixer (alcofixer@aol.com), May 19, 2004.