| Passenger trains required servicing at major terminals, needing to be broken apart, cleaned, serviced, inspected and reassembled for their next departure. The passenger coach yards needed small and powerful switchers that could be operated on the overhead electrified wires. As passenger revenues declined in the1950s and 60s, railroads scaled back on both electrified coach yards and these switching locomotives. No. 5690 was constructed with the last group of B1 electric switchers, often running around the clock moving empty passenger cars across the yards. The No. 5690 spent most of its life in New York’s Sunnyside Yard. |