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From: railroad@ucbvax.ARPA
Newsgroups: fa.railroad
Subject: Re: Sand Towers
Message-ID: <9871@ucbvax.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 13-Aug-85 08:59:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.9871
Posted: Tue Aug 13 08:59:56 1985
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Organization: University of California at Berkeley
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From: Dennis Rockwell 


	[ ... ]
		I wasn't aware that these were still in use in todays engines,
	but, I can't think of any other reason of carrying a sand tower on an
	engine.

					Rick Smith

As far as I know, they are still in use, but they are no longer so readily
visible at the top of the locomotive.  After all, there is still the need
for additional traction (steel-steel is not the best match for adhesion).

As backup evidence, I have a short article (anecdote, really) which mentions
that the GG1 (the greatest locomotive ever) had sand available to the
engineer and it was used routinely in accelerating away from stops;  also,
on a recent (business) trip to Stockholm, I spent an entire afternoon at the
central RR station and the RC1 thru RC5 locomotives all had sand pipes
leading to the wheels.  The RC class locomotive is the basis for the AEM7
(?) currently in use by AMTRAK in the Northeast Corridor.

Dennis