F units and diaphragms.

bnrails

Green is the way to go
Hello

I have a questions about diaphragms.
My roster counts 13 EMD F units. 4 BN, 4 NP and 5 GN units.
Do all F units have diaphragms, passenger and freight locos?
I read elsewhere the diaphragms have been dismantled after a couple of years.

Kon
 

ZeldaTheSwordsman

Thomas Modeler
Diaphragms, or connecting corridors, were used on passenger trains consisting of central-corridor coaches. They allowed people to safely walk from coach to coach, and if the engine was designed to allow it, from the coaches to the engine.
 

cajon

LAJ #1 at Engine House
Diaphragms, or connecting corridors, were used on passenger trains consisting of central-corridor coaches. They allowed people to safely walk from coach to coach, and if the engine was designed to allow it, from the coaches to the engine.

Diaphragms are/were used between any type of pax cars (e.g. lounge, dinner, sleeper, coach, baggage, RPO) not just between coaches. If the cars & locomotives were on the same level then trainman could walk between engine & cars thru the diaphragms. It doesn't work anymore between modern locomotives & bi-level cars.
 

diburning

Member
Diaphragms are/were used between any type of pax cars (e.g. lounge, dinner, sleeper, coach, baggage, RPO) not just between coaches. If the cars & locomotives were on the same level then trainman could walk between engine & cars thru the diaphragms. It doesn't work anymore between modern locomotives & bi-level cars.

Not with superliners at least. With MBTA's Kawasaki Bilevels or GO Transit's Lozenge cars, the diaphragm is still in the same place as the single level coaches so that it makes it easier to have mixed consists.
 

wjstix

Member
Andy was pointing out that only passenger cars used full-width diaphragms where the diaphragms were as side as the car body (and then only for a short period in the streamliner era). F and E units used narrower diaphragms which were just a touch wider than the doors between the units - like the American Limited ones.
 

cajon

LAJ #1 at Engine House
Amtrak Superliners have high end doors requiring a transition car (usually occupied by the train C&E and OBS crews) that has a single level door on one end to allow access to the baggage car.
 
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