Hmmmm...Ok. What's with the stainless or aluminum sheathing on this locomotive?

-- Buck Dean (bdean@jngray.com), June 29, 2001

Answers

Siding was aluminum, not stainless steel. Two units were dome 3040 and 3041. One had shiny finish (3041), one had matte/satin finish (3040). A third unit (3043) got color impregnated fiberglass sidin

-- Warren Calloway (callowayw@aol.com), July 23, 2001.

Well, I would say Portsmouth initially because this unitd (with the experimental aluminum sides worked the Raleigh to Portsmouth connection to the Comet--17/18--for years, almost as if it was perminantly assigned to that train.) However, it usually worked as a single unit. (The train was never more than a few coaches long, and that included bad orders for the shop.) Here it is pictured MU'd, and the switch machinery adjacent to it would indicate that the locale is in signaled territory, which the Norlina-Portsmouth line wasn't. I give up. Where?

-- doug riddell (railroaddoug@erols.com), July 01, 2001.

This is SAL's experiment to see if stainless steel sides would reduce painting costs. Yet another mystery... I downloaded this photo off the internet a few months (source unknown. In this photo all the power lines and poles are missing but the exhaust smoke is there. Now, which one is the real one??

-- Jim Coviello (jcovi60516@aol.com), July 01, 2001.