For Loren who was wondering about the external difference between a slug and a B-unit: if you consider the above picture you see this sample is a true locomotive, including its prime mover, with louvers on the hood side, fans on top, etc... The only difference with a standard locomotive beeing there's no cab, hence no possibility to control it from elsewhere than a coupled manned locomotive. As far as I know BN 7600 was once a manned locomotive (an "A" unit) but has been rebuilt as a cabless, or a booster locomotive (a "B" unit) after an accident. However it's a true locomotive. Now revert to the picture I posted 2 pages upstream showing the mexican set: you've got the opposite concept: an engine which is not anymore a locomotive (no more louvers, no more fans on top even if it kept its dynamic braking housing - I don't know if it's still in use), that will be unable to run alone (I've just a wonder about its fuel tank - as far as I remember some former locomotive - slugs keep their tank used to content fuel that should be hosed to the mother loco, but I'm not sure). That engine still has traction motors but no more prime mover (hence the absence of fans), and picks up its electrical power from a mother loco. On another hand that engine (such as the Z scale slug that is a former GP35 kitbashed by Shamoo737 we saw on the same page) has a cab that allows an engineer to run his train from its board (and engineers of course appreciate that as it's obviously far less noisy), but to sum it up, slug = no prime mover (whichever the presence of a cab or not), B-unit = prime mover = true locomotive. Sorry for having been pretty long, hope this helps. Dom
The second is one of only two cabless U30Cs, the other being MP. A Dash 7 would have radiator "wings", like BN's substantial fleet of cabless B30-7As.
i've thought about it. i just don't have a need. Rio Grande did have one in the hump yard in Grande Junction, Colorado, but i don't have a hump yard, and don't see a need to drag a slug all over the mountain trackage (which is, as yet, unbuilt)! but thanks for believing in me! dave f.
Someone said they were talking about a booster in this thread as well as a slug, so I posted these pictures so if one wanted for refrence or what not you could make a booster. Slug like the CR like I said as a idea in another post maybe take a GP35 or GP9 and take the motor and mount it lower into the fuel tank, like some of the newer N locomotives. that way it could still maybe be powered and not be a dummy, more tractive effort even if in a model flat yard. :tb-wink:
