GP60B The Cabless One The companion "booster" or "B" unit to the GP60M is the GP60B. It is essentially the same locomotive as the GP60M but without a cab for a crew. EMD carbody units such as the F7B had simple controls that allowed moving a B unit around shop areas by itself. They had a reverser, a 3 notch throttle, an automatic (only) air brake valve, and a porthole that you could open and stick your head out to see where you were going. The GP60Bs have no controls for moving by themselves thus one must always be dragged around by another unit.

Here is an example of ATSF's GP60B at Anita, MT on June 12, 2001. The "cab" door is open so come on in.

The back wall of the cab is pretty much the same as the cabbed GP60M. Notice that the units do have the usual Isolation Switch and an ammeter for troubleshooting and checking its loading status.

This next view is looking forward towards where the cab windshield and low nose should be. The wire cage hanging from the ceiling surrounds the motor for the dynamic brake grid blower.

The left side of the cab contains a rack with the locomotive air brake equipment. This equipment would normally be located under the cab floor on most locomotives. On the wall above the air brake equipment is the trainlined alarm bell that warns engineers of problems with any unit of the consist.

Like other ATSF and BN units the GP60Bs were eventually painted in BNSF colors. Here is the BNSF 346 freshly painted into the so called Heritage I scheme. Seen at Laurel, MT on April 17, 2002.

Same unit the next day. The color is not black it is a very dark green.

Train of Visitors

Created 04-18-2002
Updated 04-20-2002