Comparison of P&LE U28B Locomotives and Stewart models

First of all, if you have any corrections or additions to information on this page, please let me know. All of this comes from my investigation of photographs I can find on the net or in books, magazine articles, and the study of the models I have in my collection. I will use the terminology of "Phases" to describe different versions of a particular locomotive model. This is commonly done in the model and railfan world, but my understanding is that this is not how the manufacturers referred to the variations of models.

Spotting the Prototype

The P&LE purchased 22 Phase I U28B locomotives from GE in 1966. These were numbered 2800-2821. The Phase I U-28B is outwardly identical to the Phase IV U-25B. Only the internals were changed to upgrade the units to 2800 hp. The other railroads receiving Phase I U-28Bs were the Milwaukee Road (393-398), Rock Island (240-254), and SP (7025-7028).

Unique spotting features for the Phase I U-28/PhaseIV U-25 are

  1. Sloped short nose
  2. Brake lever instead of brake wheel on fireman's side of low nose

Compare these two photos. PRR 2647 is a Phase III U-25 and P&LE 2800 is a Phase I U-28. The sloped nose vs. flat nose is not very clear, but noticable.

Spotting features in common between Phase I U-28/Phase IV U-25 and Phase III U-25

  1. Handrails mounted on side of walkway instead of the top mounting on Phase II
  2. Double front windshield instead of large single windshied on Phase II
  3. Last set of access doors on long hood are lower, and all door latches are on the same sight line. Phase IIb units are like this, but Phase IIa units have full height rear doors

Note the handrail mounting and full height rear doors on NYC 2506 (a Phase IIa unit) vs. NYC 2509 (a Phase IIb unit). The single front windshield is evident in the photo of 2509.

One final note. There were several variations on the access doors below the engineers window that did not correspond with any particular Phase. These were prototype specific. the P&LE units had two doors with the forward on about 25% larger than the rear one.

Stewart Models

Some years ago, Stewart produced models of Phases II-IV of the U25B and the Phase I U28B which it offered in a black and yellow P&LE scheme that was used in the mid to late 1970's. Stewart has recently re-released the U25B models with new drives and retooling of the radiator area on the top of the long hood. Recently (Summer 2004) Bessemer Hobbies has produced a set of P&LE painted U-28s that also represent the black-yellow period.

First a comparison between the P&LE U boats and the Stewart models. All differences are in appearance only. I do not have access to dimensional data, so I can't verify lengths, widths, etc. To start, the Stewart U25B Phase IV is identical the Stewart U28B Phase I, and overall the Stewart models do a good job of representing the P&LE U28s. So, if you can find either a Phase IV U-25 or Phase I U-28, you have the right model to begin making a P&LE U-boat There are four aspects of the Stewart model that make it inaccurate for a Phase I U-28.

  1. The rear access doors on the long hood are correct only for a Phase IIa
  2. The handrails mount to the top of the walkway instead of the side. Only correct for Phase II.
  3. There are three access doors below the engineer's window instead of two (P&LE specific detail)
  4. The horn supplied has the long chime on the fireman's side. The P&LE had the opposite.

Items 2 and 4 can be fixed with detail parts. My article in P&LE Historical Society's The LIttle Giant provides a complete detail parts list along with how to make the Stewart model match the prototype. Items 1 and 3 would require significant scratch work, and I am not willing to do that much on the 12 units I have.

Below are pictures showing each of the differences above.

1. The last set of doors on the long hood before the large screens. The Stewart model has them as full height whereas the P&LE units have doors about a foot shorter than full height.

 

This is P&LE 2800 in as delivered paint. This clipping is from a photo on George Elwood's site.

 

2. Handrails. Prototype stanchions are side mounted. Unmodified Stewart model stanchions are mounted to the top of the walkway. Last photo shows model modified with Smokey Valley stanchions.

     

3. The small doors below the engineer's side of the cab. The model has 3, the prototype has 2.

 

 

4. The horn. Both model and prototype are 3 chime horns, but the P&LE horn has the short tone on the fireman's side, the Stewart model is the opposite.

 

This clipping is from p. 11 of Rich's book. Notice also that this unit (2814) has had some of it's windows filled in. I have no idea when this was done or to how many units.

  

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