The 'Engine Room Winterization Hatch', as EMD called it, 'consists of a housing and a damper over the #1 cooling fan to divert, when so set, warm air into the engine room. In the summer position, the duct leading to the engine room is shut off, and all the air from the #1 cooling fan is exhausted to the atmosphere. In the winter position, a portion of the air is diverted to the duct, which leads to the engine room. A handle on the outside of the duct, secured in position by a bolt, controls the operation of this winterization feature.' Thus, someone had to climb up on the hood at the start and end of the cold weather season to change the positioning of the damper.

Number 7301 was built in April 1954 as Cleveland Union Terminal (CUT/NYC) 5701 (c/n 19522) on EMD Order 5340. It later became PC/CR 7301, then VTR 751, then SLR 1751, then SLR 58. It is seen in charge of Train Number 456, The Valpo.

The Valpo first ran for the PRR on August 30, 1869, then called the Chicago–Valparaiso Accommodation. It was also referred to as The Valpo Local or The Dummy. It passed into the hands of the PC and then the CR. Sometime in 1979 it passed into Amtrak, renamed The Calumet, and continued until 1991.

I was driving south on I-65 and happened to see headlights approaching from the west. I jumped off the Interstate, but by then this train had already passed me. I had to take some liberties with the local speed zones to get this photo, and even then the best I could do was get ahead a short distance, pull over and stick the camera out the window. The hogger was working his engines. A visit to Google Earth today shows that these rails have since been removed. * NOTE * Mark E left a Comment asking if I was sure this was shot in 1984. I went back and looked at the slide mounts (there are three slides in this sequence), and they are all stamped June 1982 and sequentially numbered. According to crcyc.railfan.net the E8's were all retired in January 1978, so I'll admit there is some question about the validity of the date. I do have a couple of slides of a CR E8 in Chicago commuter service dated July 1978. I was on a business trip and these are slides from my employer's camera, so they are not as carefully marked as they should be. The slide date stamp is all I can go by at this point.