B unit being used without A?

[CBQ Fan]

So does anyone have photographic proof of a desperate crew using a B unit to move cars without benefit of an A unit.  They say there is a prototype for anything you might want to model.  This seems like a good test.

[RWCJr]

Model railroad magazine ran a N scale layout building series (also later sold as a magazine) on a Clinchfield railroad layout. One of the photos was of a B F-unit that was used by the prototype to switch a mine. Robert

[Chris333]

Only one I ever heard of:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=452557&nseq=0

http://www.trainlife.com/magazines/pages/410/30014/october-1996-page-4

[delamaize]

B nits usually had a basic control stand to allow a unit to be moved around sans a unit. If they used b units for switching or shuffling cars, I dunno

[kalbert]

Would a B maybe have been equipped with remote control?

[jnevis]

WP B units had a headlight and control stand for hosting around the yard, but I don't think they used them for actual car moves.

[rswinnerton]

Most B units had what are called "Hostler Controls". Somewhere, I've got pics of them moving some cars around in a yard. Eds Law applies.
Russ

[C855B]

^^^ Ditto.

40 years ago I was blatantly trespassing in SP's Taylor Yard engine facility, and witnessed an F7B pushing a dead something-or-other around the shops.

FWIW, SP's three DD35s (double-engine B hood units) had a single chime horn operated from the hostler stand.

[nkalanaga]

It wouldn't be at all hard for your railroad to cut windows in a B unit and install proper controls.  Other than the Haysi mine switcher I don't know of anyone doing it, as you'd have a switcher with very poor rear visibility, but it wouldn't be any worse than the MILW using one of their boxcab electrics as a switcher.  They did that several times through their history, including many years in Harlowton, MT. 

[cv_acr]

I've heard (sorry don't have the reference) of a situation that apparently happened on a PC train, where the lead unit developed some sort of serious issues and actually had to be set out. The trailing unit was a GP9B, and the crew ended up bringing the train into the next terminal using the controls on this B unit.

As luck would have it, some photographer captured this event and the photo is apparently published in a book somewhere, but I've personally only heard this secondhand, so I don't know what publication that might be.

[Ntrainz1]

Penn Central Power page 67, GP9B leading freight on Northeast Corridor.

[eric220]

I've heard (sorry don't have the reference) of a situation that apparently happened on a PC train, where the lead unit developed some sort of serious issues and actually had to be set out. The trailing unit was a GP9B, and the crew ended up bringing the train into the next terminal using the controls on this B unit.

As luck would have it, some photographer captured this event and the photo is apparently published in a book somewhere, but I've personally only heard this secondhand, so I don't know what publication that might be.

If anyone was desperate enough to do it, it would have been the PC.

[nkalanaga]

A similar incident happened years ago on the CB&Q, but they got a little luckier.  The lead unit on a passenger train, in AB(B?)A configuration, had to be set out.  They ran the train from the rear A unit, with the brakeman standing in the end door of the B unit, holding a white lantern and the angle cock.  The lantern satisfied the rule saying they had to have a headlight, and in case of an emergency, he could dump the air.  I don't know how far they went that way, but apparently it was some distance, and at mainline speeds.  I wouldn't have wanted that job...

[cv_acr]

Penn Central Power page 67, GP9B leading freight on Northeast Corridor.

Thanks, that sounds like the one they were talking about.

[CBQ Fan]

A similar incident happened years ago on the CB&Q, but they got a little luckier.  The lead unit on a passenger train, in AB(B?)A configuration, had to be set out.  They ran the train from the rear A unit, with the brakeman standing in the end door of the B unit, holding a white lantern and the angle cock.  The lantern satisfied the rule saying they had to have a headlight, and in case of an emergency, he could dump the air.  I don't know how far they went that way, but apparently it was some distance, and at mainline speeds.  I wouldn't have wanted that job...

This and the PC unit are exactly the kind of stories I am looking for.