Retirement
Bunker C's cost advantage waned as the plastics industry began to find uses for it and improved "cracking" techniques allowed the oil (which had previously been considered waste) to be converted to lighter fuel grades.
The last run of a gas turbine took place on December 26th, 1969. All engines were out of service by 1970. Their running gear was recycled into the GE U50 series of locomotives. Trucks, traction motors and span bolsters from locomotives 51 to 75 were used in the construction of the U50, and trucks and traction motors from locomotives in the 1 to 30 series were used in the construction of the U50C. Several of the tenders were retained and converted to hold water for use with Union Pacific's operating steam locomotives, UP 844 and UP 3985.
Two of the turbines survive - UP 26 at the Utah State Railroad Museum in Ogden, Utah, and UP 18 at the Illinois Railway Museum. UP18's tender, built in 1937, had a long history; first built for use with EF steam locomotives before conversion to turbine use, it served as a water tender in the 1970s before being acquired by the museum.
Read more about this topic: Union Pacific GTELs
Famous quotes containing the word retirement:
“The student who secures his coveted leisure and retirement by systematically shirking any labor necessary to man obtains but an ignoble and unprofitable leisure, defrauding himself of the experience which alone can make leisure fruitful.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Convent. A place of retirement for women who wish for leisure to meditate upon the sin of idleness.”
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)
“Douglas. Now remains a sweet reversion—
We may boldly spend, upon the hope
Of what is to come in.
A comfort of retirement lives in this.
Hotspur. A rendezvous, a home to fly unto.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)