My Ntrak club was touring the CSX Collinwood, (Ohio) intermodal yard friday and I noticed that some of the yard engines that had been recently painted had white roofs. I would assume that the intention is to try to keep the crews cooler. Is this something that will be done to all locos or just the yard rats?
I live not real far from the Cumberland, Maryland yard and I hear that all the CSX loco's will get the "white Roof" treatment!!! Its was tested and is said to lower the cab degree of temp 15 to 20 degrees from what ever the temp is outside..... I've seen some SD-50's and SD-60's with it already and I believe I seen one -8 to have it already... CSX is keepin 'em cool!
That's kind of funny as at the same time we noticed an NS -8 with an air conditioner on it's roof, going by. A rare sight this far north. Over hearing us, one of the CSX employees jokingly replied,"If it's got a air conditioning on board, it's probably for the computer".
Fellas, I hate to break y'alls bubble, but CSX has long been the other white roof Railroad for nearly 11 years. The campaign was begun around 1990 and has been unique to units around the Bone Valley, the area where I live, for many years. CSX painted cab roofs white for prior to listening to crew complaints of the lack of A/C, then began installing two A/C units atop many of the ex-L&N SD40-2s that are the roaming the rails of the BV. The other white roofs are on the other coast, FEC, they too have long been painting roofs white to avoid our lovely 362 days of hot, humid, and blazing Sun. This idea is not new by any means as RRs located around Salt Lake City began this in the 50s. The reason why y'all are seeing the increase is that CSX has begun painting all roofs systemwide, not just FL any longer. Hope this helps and have a good one, Justin
Justin, Thats what we (or should i say "I") was talking about CSX white roofs system wide I knew they had it in Floriday and so on They would almost have to being the heat down their is torturing....
Oh well. Looks like I have to break out the air brush, white paint and masking tape. Thanks for the feedback!
Place your bets! Who will be the first model manufacturer to come out with a white roofed cab? And what scale???????????
I'll bet P2K HO scale, then MTH in O scale, then N scale to follow by Atlas...... [ 01 August 2001: Message edited by: 7600EM_1 ]</p>
I'll bet that noone will for probably well over a year from now, hey, not enough locomotives have 'em and you probably couldn't find a good prototype to work from, only a couple of every 150 or so have white roofs [ 01 August 2001: Message edited by: A&A 6183 ]</p>
Hey, everyone , sorry I've been gone, I,ve been in New York, and we didn't even go sneaking around yards!! But we did go to Steamtown, in Scranton PA, that was cool even for a deisel lover like me Here are some pics of white cab roofs: [ 01 August 2001: Message edited by: nbrr2000 ]</p>
I mentioned before that I've noticed school buses in NYC now sport white roofs. I saw quite a few from the office window today. (The UV index was 8 today in the City). Wonder what sort of equipment will follow this new idea? Dozers? Kenworths? Maybe the day of dark colored vehicles will come to an end? And I'll betcha that someone comes out with a scale white roofed CSX unit before the winter is over! John
I still don't understand the whole white roof being cooler idea. My car is entirely white and it gets hotter than heck. My last car had a white roof and blue body. The seats in that thing could burn through Levis. Oh, and yes, I do understand that white supposedly reflects heat.
The best example I can offer is when I re-roofed my house. We went from dark grey shingles to a very light ash grey. My AC (electric) bill went down aprox. 30%. Made me a believer.
About 40, years ago, my father painted his bathroom radiator black before painting it white, because he thought black would hold the heat in better. I'm still wondering about that........... John
