# What is the red hose for?



## Guest (Oct 21, 2008)

ok so i was looking at some real photos of engines to get some ideal of how to detail the ends of my engines and i keep seeing these large red hoses on a lot of locos,is it some sort of mu hose? i dont know but i thought it looked cool so i put some on my locos. i made them with red electrical wire. it makes them look complete with the kadees and the silver hose ends i painted








Nick..


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## Guest (Oct 21, 2008)

OOOOOOOOO by the way, its kadee night at my house....


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## Bill Swindell (Jan 2, 2008)

It's not a hose. It's the MU cable.


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## Curmudgeon (Jan 11, 2008)

Designed to pass MU's with low impedance. 
Specific length to keep standing waves effect low. 

Keep both ends plugged in. 
Letting free MU's roam about your house can be a bad thing.


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## Bill Swindell (Jan 2, 2008)

One end of the MU cable is plugged into the MU socket. The other end is plugged into a dummy socket. This makes a good palce to store the cable. Otherwise, it has to be stored either in the nose or in the rear of the engine. It is against the rules to leave it laying on any of the walkways.


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## Rayman4449 (Jan 2, 2008)

That sir, is a LOT of diesel motive power!!
















Raymond


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## Guest (Oct 22, 2008)

Thanks guys for the info, as i didnt know about the mu cable.one last question on the subject? i assume the the red plug is the hot one and white, yellow or green would be the dummie..and also how far back do you think they used these??? maybe all the way back to gp-9s and f-3s!!!! thanks..








Nick..


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## Guest (Oct 22, 2008)

Posted By Rayman4449 on 10/21/2008 8:12 PM
That sir, is a LOT of diesel motive power!!
















Raymond




HE HE HE NOT AS MUCH AS YOU SIR!!!! you are my hero... HA HA HA








Nicky....


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## Bill Swindell (Jan 2, 2008)

From the GP-9 that I run, the live socket is on the right, looking at the end of the locomotive in your pictures. They were used as far back as the EMD FT's or early 50's.


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## San Juan (Jan 3, 2008)

I'm not familiar with CSX practices, but MU/Comm cable plugs on Amtrak use the color blue. On Superliners and other passenger cars, white is for the dummy plug. On P42 locomotives the MU/Comm plugs are blue and black. Red or yellow on Amtrak is for Head End Power (HEP) cables.

An interesting website that sells the real thing can be found here:

MU-HEP Cables


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## DKRickman (Mar 25, 2008)

Every freight locomotive I've seen or used has MU cables that are red, at least in theory. They're usually some very dirty, dingy, faded shade of pink. Most of them are strung through a bracket at their center, and hung by a chain to the underside of the drop step. There _should_ be one on each end of every locomotive, though they occasionally do go missing. Only one is needed to connect a pair of locos, so the other is kept with both heads in the dummy sockets on whatever loco it's attached to. As far as the color of the sockets (technically, the hinged cover on the socket), that depends on the railroad. On NS, they are usually all black, sometimes (if the engine is clean enough to be able to see it) with the word "DUMMY" on the dummy sockets. Other railroads I've seen paint the live socket red, yellow, or white, but I cannot recall seeing the dummy sockets painted anything other than the same color as the rest of the frame. 

The 37-pin (I hope I've got the number correct, though it doesn't really matter for our purposes) MU jumper cable was introduced by EMD on their early E-units, and I think it predates even the FT. Other builders used similar but incompatible electrical MU systems, and some even used pneumatic MU hoses. The EMD system won out, probably in large part due to the sheer number of F units running around at the end of WWII and shortly thereafter, and now any locomotive designed to MU with another will have this system. As an interesting aside, Even EMD used pneumatic hoses in conjusction with the jumper cable, controlling things like sanding. The number of hoses has decreased over time, until today there are only 3, all having to do with the independant braking system on the engines. All the other MU functions are now handled by the jumper cable. With the advent of $%&#$!!! electronic brakes, I wouldn't be surprised to see all the MU functiones handled electrically before long.


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## Guest (Oct 22, 2008)

Thanks for all the info guys.....








Nick..


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

And now you know the rest of the story. nice line up of locos. Later RJD


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## baron67 (Jan 5, 2008)

Our 1953 GP7, ex-ATSF 2199, has an MU socket and I have run it MUd with a GP38. It was rebuilt by ATSF in 1983 with a new cab and chopped nose but it doesn't look like the MU sockets were ad-ons. 

Jerry Barnes 
Mechanical Dept. 
Grapevine Vintage Railroad


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## Chucks_Trains (Jan 2, 2008)

Where's that red hose go on my Big Boy's??

Nick, those diesels would look a lot better with some Union Pacific paint...


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## Guest (Oct 25, 2008)

Sorry Chuck,
I couldnt fit them on the table!!!!!! here you go hows that for UP...nice arnt they!!!! they pull and sound great.. USA all the way...
Nick..







.


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## Chris France (Jan 3, 2008)

Actually, not to nitpick, but the EMD/Modern MU Jumpers are 27 pin. And there are others out there still operating. When I worked for the Connecticut Central in the mid-90s our S-4 was equipped with the original ALCO 21 pin MU system and we regularly MU'd it to both the RS-1 that we leased, and our other S-4 (which later cracked a block) that happened to also have the same system. Not that its common for other MU jumper systems to be used, but they are still out there. Mainly because the cost and difficulty for a shortline to rewire an MU set up is a little much, so if they have two engines of the same make with another system you can bet they'll use it if they need to.


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## Paul Burch (Jan 2, 2008)

This conversion was done using the MU castings and ditch light castings from Ozark.


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## Guest (Oct 30, 2008)

WOW Paul that came out great lookin, i bought a bunch of the MU castings and ditch light castings from Ozark, but i couldnt find a bulb and wire combo that would fit inside of the ozark ditch light housing. very dissapointed with them, i will use the mu housings on other projects along with the speedo cable. also bought a bunch of the F.R.E.D.S. they look and work rite and they came with LEDS...
Nick...


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## Paul Burch (Jan 2, 2008)

Nick,
A 3mm led with the leads bent over at 90 degrees fit just fine. Just slip a small diameter shrink wrap on the leads so that the wire connection is below the deck. The ones I did were a bit more of a challenge because I was trying to duplicate the way S.P. did their retrofits on the SD40R's. I hope to get pictures up next week of the SD40R.


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## Chucks_Trains (Jan 2, 2008)

Nick, I forgot about your fleet of Heritage locomotives...very nice









Paul, Fantastic pic's of your very nice rr...


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## yutzk (Jan 2, 2008)

Nick, 

Seems to me like you need to do this to another one of the locomotives you have now huh?? hehe 

Dont worry your CR 70MAC will have a good new home.  It's already been detailed on the grillework side, now I may do what you did to all my locos as well with the MU's


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## Guest (Nov 2, 2008)

Posted By Paul Burch on 10/30/2008 8:30 PM
Nick,
A 3mm led with the leads bent over at 90 degrees fit just fine. Just slip a small diameter shrink wrap on the leads so that the wire connection is below the deck. The ones I did were a bit more of a challenge because I was trying to duplicate the way S.P. did their retrofits on the SD40R's. I hope to get pictures up next week of the SD40R.





Thanks Paul, i found some 3mm LEDs they fit good .







now i just need to find heat shrink that small for the wires..
Nick


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## Guest (Nov 2, 2008)

Posted By yutzk on 11/02/2008 9:10 AM
Nick, 

Seems to me like you need to do this to another one of the locomotives you have now huh?? hehe 

Dont worry your CR 70MAC will have a good new home.  It's already been detailed on the grillework side, now I may do what you did to all my locos as well with the MU's





Kevin,
I received your UP dash 9 and it will be put to good use as well. i will detail her up and put her to work. i really like the grill work being painted black so i have started to paint all my loco grill work black!! thanks for the good ideal looks great. now i better not get anymore UP locos other wise people might think i like the UP better than CSX or the NYC he he








Nick...


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

Nice looking SP unit. Great detail even along the right of way. Later RJD


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