By Eric Berger
A new arrival at the Altoona Railroaders Memorial Museum enhances its ability to serve its educational mission while preserving a pioneering locomotive that was unique to Conrail and provides another reason for railfans to visit the museum. The engine is PSU 2020, an EMD SD60I donated by Norfolk Southern for use in Rail Transportation Engineering programs offered at the Altoona campus of Penn State University.
The unit has been kept for several years in the former PRR car shops now occupied by Curry Rail Services in Hollidaysburg, nearly ten miles south of Altoona. Curry applied a new PSU paint scheme with a shade of blue between those of Conrail and Penn State prior to the move to the museum’s Harry Bennett Memorial Roundhouse.
“The close proximity of the roundhouse and other museum facilities to that of Penn State Altoona’s two campuses will afford enhancements to the students’ learning opportunities and faculty research capabilities,” said Steve Dillen, coordinator of the Penn State Altoona Rail Transportation Engineering Program.
Beyond its value as an educational tool, PSU 2020 has significant historical value as a rare surviving example of power from a pivotal period in locomotive technology.
“This is a fantastic opportunity to help bridge the gap between preservation and modern-day railroading. Before the addition of this locomotive, our most recent piece of rolling stock dates to 1969 in the form of the Penn Central caboose. ‘PSU 2020’ is now a placeholder of locomotive technology of the mid-1990s,” said Joe DeFrancesco, executive director of the Altoona Railroader’s Memorial Museum. “Museums often struggle to remain relevant while preserving the past. This locomotive brings balance to our offerings.”
The locomotive also will provide other learning opportunities and activities, DeFrancesco said, including vocational education, STEM labs, and hands-on activities that will blend practices of past and present railroading.
“Through the RTE partnership and continuous growth, opportunities will develop to create a truly immersive experience,” DeFrancesco said. “It is a mutual goal of both Penn State Altoona and the Railroaders Memorial Museum to utilize the SD60I as a means to attract more students to the RTE program and more visitors to the museum.”
Introduced in 1984, the SD60 line was the first Third Generation diesel-electric produced by EMD. Though nearly identical to the predecessor SD50 model on the outside, the cab of the SD60 was equipped with a new control system utilizing three Motorola microprocessors, the first EMD model to rely on computers. The model introduced an equally significant change under the long hood, the 16-710G prime mover, replacing the late-Second Generation 645 engines used by EMD since 1972.
While those internal changes were significant, EMD would showcase yet another major innovation with its SD60M variant in 1989, the North American Safety Cab. The wide-cab concept was first adopted by Canadian National more than a decade earlier, with both major U.S. builders following suit in the late 1980s, ultimately heralding a change in the “face” of modern railroading.
One more EMD innovation came in 1993 with the SD60I variant: the WhisperCab. It features cushioning gaskets “isolating” the cab and surrounding hoods and frame, hence the “I” in SD60I. The goal was to provide a quieter, smoother ride, and train crew reviews indicate the design met those goals initially but gave way to hard rides when the cushioning seams degenerated with age. More than 1,100 SD60 variants were built between 1984 and 1995, but just 81 were of the SD60I variant, all of them going to Conrail. The WhisperCab was used subsequently on SD70, SD75i, SD80MAC and SD90MAC models.
When the assets of Conrail were split between NS and CSX in 1999, CR 5582 became NS 6721, receiving a new NS paint job in 2005. It remained hard at work in mainline service until retirement and donation to PSU in 2019. All of the SD60M and SD60I models operated by NS have since been retired, leaving only SD60E units rebuilt from standard SD60s still in service.
Though not currently in operating condition, PSU 2020 offers students the chance to examine the various mechanical and cab components of a locomotive.
