Since Sep 00, there has been an extremely detailed and accurate site focusing
exclusively on the earliest history of the ALCo-GE-IR (AGEIR) locos, the late
John F. Campbell's "
ALCO / General Electric / Ingersoll-Rand (AGEIR) Diesel-Electric Locomotives"
site; I heartily recommend it to you! John Campbell added a
complete roster of all the ALCo-GE-IR boxcab locos built in the first production
run, totalling 33 units, from 1925 to 1930, but not the later Bi- and Tri-Power or GE-IR
units.
The first serious, commercial, heavy electric locomotive in this country was
commissioned by the B&O in a purely-speculative venture with GE. The B&O
needed a way to get freight through the 1.4-mile Howard Street Tunnel under
Baltimore [the very one that caught fire in mid-July last year (2001)] without
asphyxiating the engineers and contracted with GE in 1892 to try to build an electric
locomotive for that service. Such had never been done before but GE came
through handsomely within a year (1893) with a 30-ton 0-B-0 switcher; too small for
tunnel service, it nevertheless proved the concept of heavy electric traction.
Having done this, GE went on to design and build a complete system for the service -
generating plant, distribution, and 98-ton locomotives on articulated chassis with four
pairs of 68" drivers (0-B+B-0?) and 49,000 T.E.
GE delivered B&O #1 in Jun 1895 and it entered revenue service on 07 Jun 1895; it
was followed by #2 in Nov 1895 and #3 in May 1896. The tunnel remained
electrified until diesels took over in 1940.
[The foregoing taken almost verbatim from Bill Russell's Penny Bridge
site.]
There is a VERY poor photo of #3 at the Jay Street enginehouse on 19 Oct 1948, just
before the cab was stripped off, on page 10 of Jay Bendersky's "Brooklyn's
Waterfront Railways"; she barely qualifies as a boxcab, having a cab only
about 10' or 15' long and huge railed "porches" at each end. Another really
odd feature is that the cab windows are down low near the deck, so she looks about
as weird as a boxcab can get.
Quite at the opposite end of the size and time spectrum, among the biggest and
last "regular" boxcabs GE built, were a pair of odd transfer locomotives for the
Illinois Central in 1936, #9200 and #9201, similar to the #9202 EMD unit.
Are they boxcabs? As with the old first Jay Street and B&O units (which had
what appear to be cooling motors or battery boxes), they had short hoods (probably
radiators in this case) projecting outward from the cab areas. These
were monsters for their days, with enormously-powerful diesels, the #9201 boasted
the largest engine made until ALCo introduced its 244-engined PA-1 in 1946 (per
Marre, 1995). The #9200 had two 900HP I-R engines and the #9201 a 2,000HP
Busch-Sulzer. From the 1938 section of Train Shed Cyclopedia No. 20 -
Diesel Electric Locomotives 1925-1938, here is #9201 and her operator's control
station and engine room, showing one bank of cylinders:
(24 Apr 05)
(Images from Train Shed #20)
[Thumbnail images; click on photos for larger images]
#9200 was delivered on Feb. 22, 1936 (we have no info. on when it was completed at
GE). #9201 (originally numbered 9202, at least while at GE) was completed on
Sept. 14, 1935 but not turned over to the railroad until March 31, 1936. Both
units were scrapped in 1947.
Note the unique truck design with Talgo-style coupler mounting. The GE
traction motor model number for both units was GE-716, with 62:15 gearing to
39" wheels. A lot of information on these trucks came in and the
material was moved to
a new
page on 15 Sep 05.
(15 Sep 05)
GE 20/23-ton Boxcabs
.
Prior to getting into the internal-combustion-powered locomotive business ca. 190?,
General Electric was a major builder of electric motive power; their earliest efforts
were basically electric locos without pans, poles, or shoes, and with a
motor-generator set plunked into the carbody. It is NOT the intention for this
page to cover the surviving electrics here, although I will add links to them on this
page as they come to my attention (below).
General Electric built a number of tiny industrial yard switchers in both 20 and 23 ton
ratings. Information on these is scattered across my boxcab and model RR
pages and will be transferred here as convenient (for me).
I lost some information Tom Lawson sent me 13 Feb 99, which I mistakenly moved
here, about a 4-wheel H. K. Porter boxcab "GE" built in the 1930's
of 30-ton (?) size; he'd photographed it in service and provided a copy for us
However, what showed was a "GE 23-ton Porter", which confused the
dickens out of me. Well, it turns out that it is a "Gas-
Electric" not a "General Electric" and has been
moved back to my Other Boxcabs page!
The question of Porter vs. GE bothered me so I asked Lee Snover (GE 23/25-ton
modeler extraordinaire) what he knew and he sent this (edited and abridged):
Porters were built in May and July of 1926; they used Climax 6-cylinder distillate
engines driving Westinghouse 300KW generators with two Westinghouse traction
motors; so much for THAT bright idea (for more on Lee and his models, see my
Other Boxcabs and Model
RR pages).
There is at least one survivor, 1938 GE 23-ton Lehigh Portland Cement #1, General
Electric c/n 12447, Diesel-Electric, 6-1938, at the
Midland Railway Historical Association in Baldwin City, Kansas.
Here, by kind permission of Don Ross, from his fabulous
RailSpot photo collection are Jim Shepard's 21 Sep 79 shot of an unnumbered LPC
20-tonner (NOT a 23-tonner) at the Midland
Railroad in Baldwin City, Kansas and Mike Murray's Dec 92 shot of a
23-tonner at Mason City, Iowa:
(J. Sheperd 21 Dec 79 LPC #? (left) and M. Murray Dec 92 LPC #? (right) -
photos courtesy of D. Ross - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images; click on photos for larger images]
The 23-tonner sure needs a vacuuming (in fact, it's a miracle or a tribute to good air
filters that she ran at all in all that abrasive dust) Think that's a vacuum hose
in front of her? Maybe she was rigged up as a track vacuum! (And it's
not even April First!)
Rich Garich noticed the discrepancy; see the deckplate thickness and the roller
bearings? Worse, to my mind, I never noticed not only these details, but the
window arrangement and their distance from the roof! So what IS
that loco at the Midland - 20 or 23-ton?
Here's a a composite enlargement of the two photos, above, from Don Ross 's
site to show the deckplate thickness - 20-ton at left and 23-ton at right:
(24 Nov 06)
(cropped from photos courtesy of D. Ross - all rights reserved)
GE SHOVELNOSES
(moved from Boxcabs Continuation Page 2 on 28 Jan 2002)
The question was raised, "Are the GE Shovelnose export engines boxcabs?"
ALCo powered versions worked in Argentina and Uruguay and other versions were
the famous White Pass & Yukon units and the Philippine National Railways engines.
It's a fair question, especially since I include the Alton shovelnoses and such and
even the EMD E6 boxcab versions; but this is MY site and I choose not
to cover them; they are standard, late-model, diesels and belong elsewhere.
Well - - - , mostly so. Just because they were made later on and are a cross
between a boxcab and a standard cowl diesel, I can still throw a little memory their
way.
Señor Marcelo Benoit in Uruguay was kind enough to dig up both data AND photos of
their GE shovelnoses, as follows:
There were 20 G. E. engines numbered 1501-1520, builder's numbers 30925-30944,
1,400 HP, built between March and November 1952, and 27 G.E. engines numbered
1521-1547, builder's numbers 32150-32176, 1,400 HP, built between June and
November 1954. They were standard gauge and used as main line
locomotives on all tracks that allowed 18 tons/axle. Only nine of these
locomotives now survive in service. Are used in passenger services between
Montevideo and 25 de Agosto and on freight trains with less than 800 tons.
Displaced from heavier freights in 1994 with arrival of G.E. C18-7i locomotives.
Here are Sr. Benoit's 25 Aug 93 photo of #1515 with the train marking the renewal of
passenger service between Montevideo and 25 de Agosto and #1530 at Peñarol on
21 May 99, plus one from the Uruguayan state collection of #1534:
(#1515 and #1530 images courtesy of Marcelo Benoit - all rights reserved;
#1534 image from the SODRE collection - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail images - click on the pictures for full images]
Sr. Benoit adds that the photo of #1534 shows the former shovelnose color scheme
{except that it's in B&W!} and was taken on the "La Tablada" cattle branch
near Montevideo.
Sr. B. again (03 Jul 01), with DOUBLE-ENDED Argentinian
Shovelnoses #5769 & 5725 at Saldias station (near Retiro in Buenos Aires, on the
Ferrocarril Belgrano Cargas); both were originally single-ended like the WP&Y
units:
Speaking of GE export models, can anyone give me more information (other than that
on the diagram which follows) about this 1930 3' narrow gauge unit on Chiriqui
Land Company rails in Panama? It sure looks like a twin to the Celotex
Corp. #3 1929 23-ton GE/Porter Gas-Electric noted above.
Chiriqui Land Co. Miniboxcabs
(image from Bruce Pryor's Narrow Gauge Pictures From Off The Beaten Path site).
[Thumbnail image - click on the picture for the full image.]
Here is the Chiriqui Land Co's. "Oil Electric Locomotive" diagram, marked "Collection of
Richard Yudin", also courtesy of Bruce Pryor:
(image from Bruce Pryor's Narrow Gauge Pictures From Off The Beaten Path site).
[Thumbnail image; click on picture for larger image]
25/27 Jan 02 - From Brian Norden, a director of both the
Orange Empire Railway Museum and the
Association of Railway Museums comes this information on the Chriqui units (basically
unedited):
"The Chiriqui Land Company was a banana operation in Panama that later bought
some of the earliest ALCO hood units." Here is what Brian found about the
double-truck 3' gauge box-cab locomotives that Chiriqui Land Company bought from
GE.
"A total of five of these locomotives were built. It appears that the Winton oil
engines were sold through EMC as EMC listed the sales with its conversion order
number"
No. GE Serial Date EMC No. Later Road No.
6* 10837 5/29 C-26 706
7 10838 5/29 C-27 707
8 11084 1/30 C-29 708
9 11085 1/30 C-30 709
10 11085 1/30 C-31 710
"The EMC C-numbers were usually assigned to motor car conversion kits sold by EMC.
For a list see 'Interurbans Without Wires'. The reason for these engines
being handled by EMC is unknown; but, there may have had an agreement with
Winton to have exclusive rights to railway sales. Why these locomotives
received Winton engines is unknown; maybe the purchaser specified the Winton
engines."
29 Jan 02- Brian sent me the missing EMC conversion order number info. Two
of them were for two of the 4-wheel locomotives that PRR built at Altoona for itself;
both were gas-engine equipped - order dates 5/28 and 5/29. A photo in the
2nd Diesel Spotters Guide shows a look similar to the LI units. The
other was for a 72-ton gas-electric built by Canadian Car & Foundary for Steel
Company of Canada, #24, order date 5/28. Brian wonderds if this could this
be a boxcab?
Thank you, Brian!
* - Chiriqui #6 was apparently repowered with a Superior diesel engine, possibly ca.
1945-46; see the Superior brochure on RR page 1.
(18 Jan 06)
(Photo from Superior brochure courtesy of W. B. Davis - all rights reserved)
[Linguistically, I find it interesting that "Chiriqui" sounds so much like North
American "Cherokee".]
Incidentally, speaking still of GE export models and Alaska and the Shovelnoses, the
same Bruce Pryor (noted directly above) also has a
White Pass & Yukon Route site.
Still speaking of GE, does anyone have a GE boxcab catalog? An I-R boxcab
catalog (and one from Westinghouse) was reproduced in
TRAIN SHED CYCLOPEDIA #43.
(14 Aug 04)
John J. Blair wrote (16 Sep 98), "Hey what about the little 4-wheel boxcab diesels that
GE built in the late '30's (a 3' gauge 23 tonner was used in a line relocation on the
Sumpter Valley RR)". He said he'd research them for us. He should be
well qualified; he's the OWNER of actual 12"=1' former NYO&W #7, a 23-ton
endcab GE diesel (s/n 15007)! It was built for Wickwire Brothers of Cortland,
NY, by GE in November 1941. John reminds me that Grandt Line produced an
HO/HOn3 version of the Sumpter Valley boxcab a few years ago. Thanks, John!
Yes, that's so; see my Model Boxcab page, et seq.
Surviving GE Electric Boxcabs
1893 GE #1 / MfrsRR #1 at
the Museum of Transport, St. Louis, Missouri.
1916 Milwaukee Road E-50 #10200 at
the Lake Superior Museum of Transportation
in Duluth, Minnesota (probably the biggest survivor).
1914 Montréal-Deux-Montagnes (Two
Mountains) line #6711 (originally CNoR #601, then CN #9101, then to CN
#101), at the Musée Ferroviare Canadien/
Canadian RR Museum in St. Constant (Delson), Québec, Canada.
Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada's St.
Clair Tunnel Co. #1308, at the
Canada Science and Technology Museum - Railways > Before CN 1850s-1919 >
Locomotives and Equipment.
L&PS (London & Port Stanley) #L1 and #L2,
now at, respectively, the ECRM
(the Elgin County Railway Museum) in St. Thomas (London area), Ontario, Canada,
and (#L2) at the
Halton County Radial Railway in Milton (Toronto area), Ontario, run by the OERHS
(Ontario Electric Railway Historical Association).
Butte, Anaconda & Pacific #47 loco out at in
Butte, Montana at the Montana Mining Museum located at Montana Tech.
(01 Mar 03)
A 1915 Milwaukee Road E-57B boxcab on display in Harlowton, Montana.
A Little Joe on display in Deer Lodge, Montana, which is only barely an "honorary
boxcab" at best!
A 1907 electric box motor, SBK #4, in East Haven,
Connecticut.
(01 Mar 03)
The Piedmont Northern Box Cab #5103 at
the NC Transp. Museum.
(01 Mar 03)
1938 GE 23-ton Lehigh Portland Cement #1, General Electric c/n 12447,
Diesel-Electric, 6-1938, at the Midland Railway
Historical Association in Baldwin City, Kansas.
Then there are scads of surviving GE boxcab electrics in Mexico and Central and South
America and overseas:
Mexican Boxcab Electrics.
Chilean Boxcab Electrics and
Trains Unlimited, Tours's
Chilean Photos
(with FAR more to follow from many countries in
TU,T's collection).
As I state on my electric boxcabs page 1, "there are endless foreign electrics that,
strictly speaking, qualify as boxcabs, but they have vestiges of steamlining or slanted
windscreens or something that turns me off and this is MY site, you know!"
There are now more than fifty-five (55) BOXCAB pages;
see the main Boxcabs page and the Boxcabs INDEX.
THUMBS UP!
THUMBS UP! - Support your local police, fire, and emergency personnel!
S. Berliner, III
To contact S. Berliner, III, please click here.
To tour the Boxcabs pages in sequence, the arrows take you from the main Boxcabs page, to the Boxcabs index, the first Boxcabs page, and on to continuation pages 3 and 4, then 100-tonner LIRR #401 and her sisters, survivor boxcabs (with map) and survivor notes, survivor CNJ #1000 (the very first), Ingersoll-Rand boxcabs (with instruction manual), this GE boxcabs page, other (non-ALCo/GE/I-R) boxcabs, Baldwin-Westinghouse boxcabs, odd boxcabs, and finally model boxcabs.
© Copyright S. Berliner, III - 1999, 2001, 2002,
2003, 2004, 2005,
2006
- All rights reserved.
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