page_title: Milwaukee Road class EP-3
section_title: Design flaws and rebuilding
hierarchical_section_title: Milwaukee Road class EP-3 / Design flaws and rebuilding
context_page_description: The Milwaukee Road's class EP-3 comprised ten electric locomotives built in 1919 by Baldwin and Westinghouse. They were nicknamed Quills because of their use of a quill drive. Although they were good haulers and well liked by engineers, poor design and constant mechanical problems plagued them for their entire lives and they were the first of the Milwaukee Road's electric locomotives to be retired.
context_section_description: The "Quills" entered service between late 1919 and early 1921 and were assigned numbers 10300-10309.  Assigned mainly to the Mountain Division, they were immediately popular with crews.  They could easily pull trains exceeding design specifications at 70-80 mph.  They didn't slip like the GE boxcabs and they were much smoother-riding than the bi-polars.  
  Within a year of entering service, however, severe design flaws began to become apparent.  The EP-3s were virtually identical to the New Haven's class EP-2 locomotives, but were heavier in weight and had a much more lightly built frame.  The Milwaukee Road's new EP-3s, unlike the trouble-free New Haven boxcabs of similar design, immediately started experiencing broken axles and frame members, cracked wheels and spokes, and deformed suspension springs.  
  It was an embarrassment for Westinghouse, which had designed the locomotives far too lightly and rigidly.  There was too little lateral play in the drivers, causing excessive wheel wear, and the frames were breaking under the stress of high-speed operation through twisting mountain rights-of-way.  During 1922 a series of meetings was held to work on design changes for the locomotives.
  Baldwin, which had built the locomotives in conjunction with Westinghouse, recommended splitting the body of the locomotive in two, effectively creating a permanently coupled two-unit boxcab.  The Milwaukee Road's Electrification Department under Reinier Beeuwkes had come to differing conclusions about the best course of action to take, and resisted Baldwin's recommendation that all ten "Quills" be cut in two.  Instead only one, number 10301, was given this modification.  The alteration was not found to help the problems, and it was eventually converted back to single-body configuration.
  A second "Quill" was modified to the Milwaukee Road's specifications, and with more success.  The entire series was effectively converted to single-end operation and were fitted with Commonwealth Delta idler trucks of better design than the originals to help guide the locomotives into curves.  The frames were also completely rebuilt with heavier steel.
caption: Side view of number 10307.
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