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I was recently in Chicago. While going through the Chicago Amtrak yards, I saw two F-40s. They had large doors built into the sides of them. The doors were open, and the entire locomotives were gutted out. They looked like empty baggage cars. Do any of you know what this is about?
Dean
smitty195 Member # 5102
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Those things have been given the nickname, "Cabbage" car. It is Cab Car and Baggage Car mixed together.
The Cabbage cars are also called "NPCU", which stands for Non Powered Control Unit.
They are used on trains that go in push-pull directions. When the locomotive is "pushing" the train, the engineer is in the cabbage car and is controlling the locomotive through there. They use a big thick black cable called an M.U. cable, and that is how the engineer in the "cabbage" car can control the power in the locomotive that is doing the pushing.
Amtrak has a few of them in the Pacific Northwest that are used on the Cascades trains as well as at least one that is used in Southern California on the Surfliner trains. For checked baggage, they do roll up the door and put the baggage inside there. It is also my understanding that because these "cabbage" cars are so lightweight (since the power plant has been removed), the fuel tanks are filled with sand in order to weigh it down. I'm not 100% certain on that, but a few people have told me that.
Gilbert B Norman Member # 1541
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Here is the best photo I can locate illustrating a 90XXX NPCU:
The XXX, or in the case of the linked photo 200, represents the original road number assigned to the F-40 locomotive from which the particular NPCU came.
Mike Smith Member # 447
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Hiawatha uses them between Chicago and Milwaukee.
Konstantin Member # 18
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This makes sense. I had never seen, or heard of them before.
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