Union Pacific U50 No. 45 at Kearney, Nebraska, in September 1970.
Francis Wiener, T. Hoffman Collection
U50
•YEARS BUILT: 1963-1965, 1969-1971
•MANUFACTURER: General Electric
•OPERATED ON: Union Pacific, Southern Pacific
•NAMES: U50 and U50C; nicknames, Twin Diesels, Double Diesels, Whirlybirds, Choppers, Stalkcutters, Rock Crushers
•QUANTITY: 66
•HORSEPOWER: 5,000
•KNOWN FOR: Large cab with curved nose; long and loud
•STATUS: All were scrapped
Who wrote these? Similarities: GE, Double Diesel, big round nose. Not the same: running gear (U50 bridged B-B trucks, U50C C-C trucks both from retired turbine units). Mechanical layouts, U50 radiators at each end of the car body, U50C has radiators in the center. Of course the cooper-bessmer diesel engines were different as well. SP only had U50s, U50C was exclusively a UP locomotive.
Must have been some kind of view out the forward windshield, and then the cab occupants would be first on the scene of an accident……………