Guilford Rail GE U30C
Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2015 9:28 pmGuilford had one or two of these beasts, purchased from Detroit Edison. Guilford crews hated em', one engine in particular, #663, hardly ever finished a run without a breakdown. It earned an interesting nickname during its Guilford service:
"As the story goes, one GTI dispatcher originated the term "boat anchor" to designate a unit dead in a consist, as in "that unit is about as much help as a boat anchor in pulling that train". This, of course, was a commonly heard term on Guilford in the late '80's, and one especially appropriate when referring to the GE U-boats. Late in its career, the #663 had the term "boat anchor" applied to it more often than not and every time the subject of retiring it came up, Tim Bickmore at Waterville would plead with the guys at Billerica to give him just one more chance to fix it, since by now he was certain he knew just what was wrong with it. As you can guess, the combination of "boat anchor", "U-boat", Tim Bickmore's name and the fact that the #663 was often the subject of morning meetings, all meant that it didn't take long for it to become known as the "U.S.S. Bickmore," frequently just shortened to "the Bickmore".
You can see the "USS Bickmore" chugging along in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLnbNP7WKbU
And since it's Guilford we're talking about, a weathered version will be included
"As the story goes, one GTI dispatcher originated the term "boat anchor" to designate a unit dead in a consist, as in "that unit is about as much help as a boat anchor in pulling that train". This, of course, was a commonly heard term on Guilford in the late '80's, and one especially appropriate when referring to the GE U-boats. Late in its career, the #663 had the term "boat anchor" applied to it more often than not and every time the subject of retiring it came up, Tim Bickmore at Waterville would plead with the guys at Billerica to give him just one more chance to fix it, since by now he was certain he knew just what was wrong with it. As you can guess, the combination of "boat anchor", "U-boat", Tim Bickmore's name and the fact that the #663 was often the subject of morning meetings, all meant that it didn't take long for it to become known as the "U.S.S. Bickmore," frequently just shortened to "the Bickmore".
You can see the "USS Bickmore" chugging along in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLnbNP7WKbU
And since it's Guilford we're talking about, a weathered version will be included
