On Saturday, March 21, 2015 at 12:21:01 PM UTC-5, bob wrote:   
   > On 2015-03-21 01:00:17 +0000, peterwezeman@hotmail.com said:   
   >    
   > > I came across pictures of these locomotives, which were used to take    
   > > passenger trains in and out of the Cleveland Union Terminal when local    
   > > ordinance did not allow steaming within the city limits:   
   > >    
   > > http://morphotoarchive.org/rvndb/rvnjpeg_img_rec.php?objno=RVN10359   
   > >    
   > > After the war, when diesels replaced steam locomotives, they were no    
   > > longer needed in Cleveland. The New York Central then had them modified    
   > > to run off its third rail system and used them to pull trains in and    
   > > out of Grand Central Station.   
   > >    
   > > I find it interesting that the locomotive's superstructure is so much    
   > > shorter than the undercarriage, about two-thirds the length. I would be    
   > > interested in any information about why they were designed like this.   
   >    
   > An interesting photograph, thanks for posting.   
   >    
   > Electric locomotives of that era were heavy but not bulky.  This meant    
   > that while they required lots of axles to support the weight, there    
   > wasn't that much actual volume required to be filled with it.  A lot of    
   > electric locomotives of the 1920s and 1930s had relatively short bodies    
   > on much longer frames.  The "Crocodile" pattern is something of a    
   > classic (google for Ce 6/8).  The GG1, under its elegant streamlined    
   > body, is in many ways similar.  With improvements in technology    
   > post-war weights went down, so the number of axles was reduced    
   > significantly, leading to much more compact machines.   
   >    
   > Robin   
      
   My thanks to all who replied. I conclude from the various comments that a   
   locomotive like the Cleveland Union Terminal units, operating off 3,000 volts   
   DC, needed a lot less electrical machinery on board than did for example a GG1   
   using 25 hz AC at much    
   higher voltage, and so needed less space to house it, hence the shorter   
   superstructure.   
      
   Peter Wezeman   
   anti-social Darwinist   
      
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