Centuries of the North Woods, Part 5: Green Bay Shops

[@gailyncookMilwRR]

Very educational, Shop workers doing their jobs well are the unsung Heroes of the Railroads.👍

[@EastEndProductionsArchiv-lm3lq]

Amen!

[@Eolafan1008]

From about 1974 through 1978 I lived in Central Wisconsin and would frequently find myself in Green Bay on business and fortunately I always was traveling via car so I could do a little rail fanning on almost every trip. On those occasions I would often find myself very close to the Green Bay shops of the Northwestern and was able to observe that fairly close quarters the activity there which I found fascinating, especially the wide variety of locomotive power that most often presented itself for my viewing pleasure. Thanks for offering us a chance to go back in time as it were to relive those images.

[@EastEndProductionsArchiv-lm3lq]

You're welcome and thanks for the comments. There was a time when Green Bay, WI was the center of the railroad universe. Thankfully, we spent a lot of time there recording the incredible action of those days. We are very happy to be able to share it with everyone. RR

[@ShawnCalay-hi6gy]

My dad loved those C628s.....used to go up there to cover vacations....he loved working sets of 3.....I don't recall him ever saying they stalled on hill....

[@BrianDavis-zr2zj]

This is incredible. On my 14th birthday, in September 1986, my mom took me and two railfan friends to this roundhouse to look at what was there. The three of us asked one of the workers if we could go inside, and he invited us in to look around. We were subsequently given a tour of the entire shop, shuttled from worker to worker. We got to go inside the cab of C628 #6728, we saw GP7 #1518 which had just been repainted into the classic C&NW scheme at this shop before it headed to the Illinois Railway Museum, and to top it all off, we were given a ride in SD40-2 #6812 as it was moved from the roundhouse out to the ready track. One of the workers gave me a valve from an Alco 251 engine, which I still have. I took lots of photos with a cruddy Instamatic camera, and recorded the entire visit on a tape recorder. One of the workers told us that the shop was going to be closing soon--so I imagine that this video was taken about the same time as our visit. In fact, I recall the cab of that MILW unit that you can see next to the roundhouse. I got a photo of the inside of it. It was from #15, an SD45. I always wondered if they used some of its nose to rebuild the #1518 back into its original high-nose design at the Green Bay shops. Anyway, I just can't believe that this video exists. It totally takes me back to that visit. Those shop workers were the best--they gave three teenagers a fantastic tour. My mom was waiting for us for hours and hours in the car, next to the roundhouse.

[@EastEndProductionsArchiv-lm3lq]

Great story! Thanks for sharing it with us. Aside from the gracious assistance and permission from CNW in making Centuries of the North Woods, we too have had experiences of kindness from CNW folks when it came to shop access, cab rides and information. I didn't realize that 1518 was painted in Green Bay before presentation to IRM. I thought she was painted at the EMD facility in McCook. RR

[@azjakeza]

Thanks for sharing this

[@EastEndProductionsArchiv-lm3lq]

You're welcome! RR

[@markjorgensen3179]

AWESOME Thanks for posting this.

[@Brad-.-.-.-.howitzer]

Great video!!😁👍😁👍👍😁👍 I wanted to ask that guy why alcos smoke so much XD

[@EastEndProductionsArchiv-lm3lq]

Well, I can answer that for you. The Alco 251 engine is a turbocharged Four Stroke diesel engine. The turbocharger is exhaust driven as opposed to an EMD engine where the turbocharger is assisted by a gear during low RPM power increases. With the Alco 251, and also the GE FDL engines, the pistons pull air into the cylinders during the intake stroke before the exhaust gasses are powerful enough to effectively drive the turbocharger and force the needed additional air into the cylinders. When high amounts of fuel are injected into the cylinders during this time, the fuel is incompletely burned and results in smoke. The technical tern for this is known as "Turbo Lag". Today's modern Four Stroke engines employ computer controls to minimize this condition, but with the old "Analog" Alcos and GEs, we get the smoke show associated with these awesome locomotives. RR

[@Brad-.-.-.-.howitzer]

Thanks a lot for the info.! Also the EMD engines are 2-stroke, which may have some impact on the turbocharging

[@ktm505sx1]

@@EastEndProductionsArchiv-lm3lq Thank you! Well said. Love your channel and appreciate your thorough responses. Just subscribed and here to stay!

[@EastEndProductionsArchiv-lm3lq]

@@ktm505sx1 Thank you! We wouldn't be able to do any of this without our awesome subscribers! RR

[@chuckabbate5924]

A lovely ugly duckling. CNW had the TLC