(moved from Boxcabs Continuation Page 3 on 18 Dec 00).
Canadian National Railway's #7750.
"A", "B", and "F" (and "1" and "2") Ends - Which is Which?
More Miscellaneous Boxcabs.
[First of all, I want to credit Bill Russell, Penny
Bridge; we seem to be linking back and forth but he has the most compendious
site about NY-area railroading,
where most boxcabs lurked, with tons of information.
Second, take a look at Mark Laundry's
Yard Limit Diesel Switcher Spotter's and Reference Guide, a site about early
diesel switchers, especially a 1994 paper by Benn Coifman on "
The Evolution of the Diesel Locomotive in the United States", with an excellent
history of the ALCo-GE-IR consortium, as well as McKeen, Westinghouse/Baldwin,
Hamilton/EMC/EMD, and Pullman's efforts.]
Since Sep 00, there is an extremely detailed and accurate site focusing exclusively on
the earliest history of the ALCo-GE-IR (AGEIR) locos, John F. Campbell's "ALCO / General Electric /
Ingersoll-Rand (AGEIR) Diesel-Electric Locomotives" site; I heartily recommend it
to you! John Campbell has since 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.
More ALCo-GE-IR Boxcab Information
A Continuation of the Text
of the Boxcabs "HOME" Page
and, especially,
the 100/108-ton, twin-engined units.
The second unit built, LIRR #401, was virtually identical
to demonstrator #9681 (CNJ #1000) but built longer and equipped with two I-R
300-hp engines.
While generally referred to as 100-tonners, they were mostly actually 108-tons.
In my listing of early predecessor units on the main Boxcabs page, I seem to have
overlooked a very significant early locomotive that Jay Bendersky says was
"considered by many to be the prototype for the age of dieselization that was to
follow". This was the Jay Street Connecting Railroad's 1915 GE 45-ton
gasoline-engined center-cum-boxcab #3. She was sort of like the U.S.S.
Monitor, "a cheesebox on a raft", in that she was neither fish nor fowl, having a
175HP gasoline engine in a teensy cab sitting all alone on a big flat chassis, so she
was either a center cab, as Bendersky calls her, or a boxcab with huge platforms on
either end. Ya pays yer money and ya takes yer cherce; I'll compromise and
dub her another of my "honorary" boxcabs. She is shown in a Harold
Fagerberg photo, taken 19 Oct 48 (when she was already 33 years old) at the Jay
Street enginehouse, on page 10 of Bendersky's 1988 "Brooklyn's Waterfront
Railways - A Pictorial Journey". Jay (Bendersky, not the street) notes that
her cab was removed and her guts stripped out and the chassis converted to a float
reach car shortly after the photo was taken (shades of one of the other early
boxcabs* - I've forgotten which - ah, ingnominous fate!).
[* - I'd erroneously claimed that fate for PRR #10001/LIRR #323 electric boxcab,
Phoebe, but my memory picked up on the flat car that accompanied Phoebe on the LI,
carrying compressors and equipped with third rail shoes and cables so it could span
third rail gaps; it sure looks like a reach car (I guess you'd call it a "span"
car), and that's what stuck in my mind.]
Chicago & Northwestern Boxcabs
Don Ross has a full page on the
Chicago & Northwestern's boxcabs. "C&NW was an early user of diesels.
They purchased 3 box cab Ingersoll Rand-Alco-General Electric 300 HP units and one
600 HP unit which was an Ingersoll Rand-General Electric. These ran for many
years until the middle 1950s." All are pictured. #1000 "was built 4/1926
with Alco construction number 66679 and General Electric number 10023. It
was scrapped in March, 1956." #1001 "was built 10/19/1926 with construction
numbers 66753 and 10133. It was retired February, 1956." #1002
"was built 4/19/1927 with construction numbers 66755 and 10135. It was
retired in May, 1957 and scrapped the next month." #1200 "was built 8/1930
with General Electric construction number 11241. It was scrapped in June,
1957". Here they are:
Images courtesy of Don Ross
and these are only thumbnails!
Click on the images for 170-190Mb full images!
Per ModelTec Magazine of August 1987 (see
bibliography), page 9, #1200 was the last GE boxcab with I-R engines.
Now, as a segué into "A" and "F" ends (following), here is a shot that John Campbell
was kind enough to send; the "front view image is of AGEIR built Chicago & North
Western #1000... It was the first 60 ton unit built with end doors and the last unit to
use the early style roof radiators":
C&NW #1000 - front (left) / CNJ #1000 - front (right)
(left photo courtesy of and © by J. F. Campbell - all rights reserved)
(right cropped from photo taken 09 Jun 1999 by and copyright © 1999 S. Berliner, III and
copyright © 1999 B&O Railroad Museum) - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed images - click on pictures for higher-resolution images]
Other than the obvious change from no end doors, with the requisite relocation of the
headlight and numerous handrail changes, the details that pop out at one! Compare
this unusual shot on the left with the front view I took of the CNJ #1000 in the B&O
Museum on the right. Look at how the front windows changed and how
narrow the fireman's became!
Then, look at those two circular plates with four bolts seen directly above the inner
handrail/cut-lever posts. I sure never noticed any such before.
Note also the overlapping belt line on the newer unit, showing the change from
full-height body panels to half-height.
I also get a feeling that each customer wanted different draft gear! Just check
the wild variety of coupler mounting arrangements on these pages.
John thought some of us would find it of interest... Perhaps. :·)
It struck me as funny that they posed a double-ended loco on a turntable; perfectly
reasonable and understandable, but still funny. {Say! Maybe that's a
transfer table! Besides, #1000 is INSIDE a 360° roundhouse!}
Here's another Don Ross photo (by Tom Wilson), showing
C&NW #1200 even better, three years later, with the
winterization hatch over the engineer's side window and
the single fireman's side window at the other end, PLUS
note the clear "A" side and "F" and "NO. 1" end
markings:
This loco, Red River #502, and Foley Bros. #110-1 are
virtually identical.
The Red River Lumber #502
{Let me note here that today's Red
River Paper Company
is NOT affiliated in any way with the old The Red River Lumber Co.
and express my appreciation for their so advising 07 Feb 2001.}
The Red River Lumber #502 was only the second 100-tonner, the
twelfth oil-electric built, and the first (and almost last) in logging service (it gave
quite a bit of trouble) and the first in the Pacific Northwest. She came with the
usual two 300-hp I-R engines but was very different from the first 100-tonner, LIRR
#401; she had a riveted frame (or had her side sill channels reversed), with rivet
heads outboard at the extreme width of the body, as opposed to #401's inboard sill
channel webs and outboard flanges. #502 had closed end sills with
rectangular end plates, whereas #401 had open end sills with access holes and a
deeper section at the draft gear. #502 came with a flat roof and flat radiator
tubing on long radiators at each end, while #401 came with a rounded roof
cross-section and the same tubing curved to match the roof line and two radiators at
each end, matching those single ones on the first 60-tonners. In addition,
while both had ladders centered on each side, #502's were recessed into the car
body, whereas #401 had the grab irons external to flush body sides. #502
also had vertically-rounded roof ends, with top mounted headlights and twin sand
boxes* like all end door models, as opposed to #401's end brows and under-brow
headlight position with single sand box* of the first models without end dooors.
#502 also was the first 100-tonner with rounded ends with end doors. Oddly,
TRRLCo had no #500 or #501 (not even a 400-series). She was used on
line-hauls instead of heavy switching and was not well-suited to the task; she lasted
14 years and was outlived by her steam colleagues. (Information on #502
from Pages 136-138 and 286 of Hanft's book.)
[* - I referred erroneously above to "step-plates" on the ends;
they are, in fact, cast "sand boxes".]
#502 was ordered from ALCo-GE-IR in January 1926; engineer Robert B. Boyd went to
Schenectady, New York, in June to study the new loco. It carried GE serial
number 10029 and ALCo s/n 66677, and was later sold to Armco Steel of
Middletown, Ohio, in 1940 as their #E103, and scrapped in 1962.
#502 was listed as 106 tons (212,000#, NOT 108 tons). In spite of
giving a lot of trouble, she inspired The Red River to build their own diesel a year later
(see Other Boxcabs).
Here, thanks to Jim Johnson (21 Sep 01) is a copy of an original print of #502 in
logging service in 1925 (note the handwritten misspelling - "Deisel"):
{That photo has vanished - I can't find a trace of it!}
That #402/2, the second 100-tonner, was almost identical to Red River Lumber Co.
#502, which, until 17 Apr 00, I could not picture here; thanks to Jim Bryant of Nevada
Rails, here is RRL #502:
Photos courtesy of James B. Bryant
The logging shot (left) is apparently a crop of an even larger one (perhaps the one
Jim Johnson sent?) - the notation deoes not appear now. Although no dates or
locations are given, Jim Bryant writes that, "the fellow in the door of the {right} photo
is from the steel company, which is buying the No. 502". Well, we know from
Marre that she became Armco #E103; now all I have to do is find out when.
Even better yet, when re-loading these pictures to this page, I noticed for the first
time those distinctive (and apparently empty) UP-style number boards on the outer
corners of the roof, with their separate number pockets!
Hamley (1970, see bibliography) notes that all
100-ton units built after LIRR #401, starting with LIRR #402, were six feet (6' or
1.83m) shorter.
(thanks to Russell Schoof 11 Dec 00 for pointing this out to me.)
For more on the only surviving 100-ton (nominal - actually 108-ton) oil-electric boxcab,
Foley Bros. #110-1, now preserved at the Feather River Rail Society's Portola
museum, click here.
CNR #7750
A later one-off twin-engined boxcab was apparently assembled from ALCo-GE-IR
components by the Candian National Railway; it is a bit of a hybrid, having flat ends
like LIRR #401 but end platforms and doors, and grillwork in the center sides, like all
other 108-tonners. #7750 was rated at 117 tons and was placed in operation
in Sep 1932, serving in Montréal.
(Photo ca. 1932, cropped from
TRAIN SHED CYCLOPEDIA No. 43)
Note that #7750 appears to have weather cab enclosures (bay windows) on
both the driver's and "fireman's" windows (evidenced by the tiny vertical panes in
front of and behind the regular panes.
However, an almost-identical photo in Marre (1995, page
429) clearly shows it without an enclosure, whil(e)(st)
the following (below) one shows such an enclosure on
the fireman's side window but not on the engineer's:
{16 Aug 04}
[The following two photographs of #7750 are from the
collection of the Canada Science and Technology Museum
at
Railways > Historic CN 1919-1963 > Locomotives
and Equipment]:
(photos property of, and reproduced here by
permission of,
the Canada Science and Technology Museum - all rights
reserved to the Museum.
These images may NOT be copied or reproduced
without specific, prior, written permission of CSTM.).
{CSTM captions to follow}
Image Nos.: CN001446 and CN001447, CSTMC/CN Collection"
The weather enclosure doesn't show on that front view,
either.
Puzzlement - Marre, on page 429 in 1995, states
that this loco is a SINGLE-engined unit, built
at CNR's Montréal shops in 1932 "similar to the GE
Ingersoll-Rand 300-hp 60-tonners marketed in the U. S."
and that the engine {singular} was an I-R 10 x
12 from Candian Ingersoll-Rand at Sherbrooke, Québec,
and that the electricals were from Canadian GE!
It would apear the the estimable Louis goofed on this
one.
Note also that, unlike most ALCo-GE-IR 60-ton units and
LIRR #401, the "fireman's" side window is single
(presumably vertical-sliding), not the standard double
horizontal-sliding. What is so fascinating to me
is that I now find that this is true for nearly all
108-ton units! I never noticed this before and
there it is, that same way, on the C&NW #1200 (above)
and on Foley Bros. #110-1,
the only twin-engined survivor:
(13 Aug 98 photo by and © S. Berliner, III 1998, 2002 - all rights reserved)
[cropped and enhanced]
Actually, #1002 in that same C&NW set above shows the
"normal" 60-ton end-door window arrangement perfectly
(it must have been a hot day):
Cropped from image courtesy of Don Ross
"A", "B", and "F" (and "1" and "2") Ends - Which is
Which?
How does one differentiate one end from the other on supposedly "double-ended"
locos? They weren't actually longitudinally symmetrical (whew - quite a phrase!).
For a start, see the general "dissertation" on "A", "B", and "F" (and "1" and "2") ends
on my RR page 2. Then, simply keep in mind
that most, if not all, AGEIR and GEIR boxcab locos had the brakestand ("B" end) at the
"rear", away from the "F" end.
Basically "A" = "F" = "1" and "B" = "2", but for more on this and on
the weighty matter of which end has the stacks closer to the end (only applicable to
single-engined units - i.e. the original 60-tonners), see Note 3. of the
Boxcab Modeling Notes on my Boxcab Modeling page.
Also, there are photos of the right rear of CNJ #1000 showing the brake wheel
through the right rear window, and a photo of the brakestand itself from inside the
left rear door, on the CNJ #1000 page and succeding
detail photo pages (taken by special permission, of course) and here they are:
108 photo (taken 09 Jun 1999) copyright © 1999, 2002 S. Berliner, III* - all rights reserved;
601 and 602 photos (taken 19 Jul 2001) copyright © 2001, 2002 S. Berliner, III* - all rights reserved
[cropped and enhanced]
* - SPECIAL COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Please be advised that the images
shown above (photos 108, 601, and 602) are reproduced here by special permission
of the B&O Railroad Museum and may
NOT be reproduced further in any form, or for any purpose, without
prior written permission of the photographer, S. Berliner, III, AND of the B&O
Railroad Museum.
See also the Tom Wilson photo of #1200, above.
From the Foley Bros. #110-1 photo
page, this further elucidation about end and side
conventions ; the front of the loco is the "F1" end and
the rear (where the brakestand is located) is the "2"
end, so the "right" side is the "A" side or right
looking from "2" to "F1" and the "left" side is the "B"
side or left looking from "2" to "F1":
(05 Aug 02 sketch, rev. 16 May 04, by and © S. Berliner, III 2002, 2004 - all rights reserved)
Oh, no, Mr. ED! C&NW #1200 has the "A"
and "B" side stencils reversed! Back to the
drawing board!
For a personal recollection of ARMCO units, see the I-R
Boxcabs page.
More Miscellaneous Boxcabs
Art Huneke was kind enough (his normal way) to send an unprovenanced photo of
Lehigh Valley boxcab locomotive #116 {?} and crew; here's a crop from a
211/16" x 4½" bordered photo:
(photo courtesy of A. Huneke)
Can anyone tell us anything about this loco; there's no indication of whether it's a
gas-electric or oil-electric but we can be reasonably certain that the bull leaning so
nonchalantly on the handrail isn't giving the engineer a speeding ticket! Look
at that uncharacteristic flat roof-line, vertical cooling coil, and box radiators; that's a
St. Louis Car Company body They built ten very similar 800HP units
for the Rock Island ca. 1929-30 (#9005 and 9014), with twin #148 400HP distiillate
engines and the same dual "blown" radiators at each end:
RI #9011 - RI #9012?
(Photos from TRAIN SHED
CYCLOPEDIA #20)
[Thumbnailed images - click on photos for larger images]
John Campbell came though nobly; Lehigh Valley #116 (1st - later renumbered
Lehigh Valley #76) was built by EMC in the mid-1930s as a gas-electric with a Winton
Model 148 air-started 400HP gasoline engine (the same power plant as used on RI
#9005 - 9014) and used 4-HM 833C traction motors. After construction, this
unit demonstrated for EMC as #464 from mid-1930 to mid-1931 and then was sold to
the Lehigh Valley. It was assigned to either New Jersey or the Bronx for 21
years prior to being taken out of service. It never received diesel power.
The opposite side of the loco was a little "busier" with two cab doors.
Brian Norden chimed in with this from the R&LHS Lehigh
Valley roster published in its Bulletin No. 126
of April 1972:
First Second Notes -
Road Road Builder Constr. ex-demo
Number Number* of Record Year Disposition number
115 75 Electro-Motive 1930 scrapped 3/53 463
116 76 Electro-Motive 1930 scrapped 3/53 464
* - renumbered 1940.
Kirkland says that the bodies were built by St. Louis
and completed in August 1930. These two and #465
were built as demonstrators and used the construction
numbers as road numbers. #465 eventually went to
the Steelton & Highspire (Harrisburg, PA) as their #30.
Thanks, Brian!
[See also Boxcabs B&O #50
and EMD pages.]
Those TRAIN SHED Rock Island unit photos were
accompanied by a drawing which I scanned, split up, and
post here - side, plan, and front and rear views:
(24 Apr 05)
(Drawings from TRAIN SHED
CYCLOPEDIA #20)
[Thumbnailed images (except for rear view in lower right) -
click on photos for larger images]
More to follow, including more detailed dimensions, pictures and more links (that might
even work!). At least, I finally found my long-lost
LIRR AA-2 Class drawing!
There are now more than fifty (50) 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 previous 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), 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
- All rights reserved.
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