PAGE INDEX:

BOXCAB MODELING NOTES - moved to Boxcabs Models page 24 Feb 00.

BOXCAB DIMENSIONS - moved to Boxcabs Models page 24 Feb 00.

LIRR #401 and Sisters Continuation Page 1

EPILOGUE to #401 (moved from main #401 page 19 Oct 01)

LONG ISLAND RAIL ROAD INFORMATION BULLETINs
on #401 and #403 when new.

LIRR #401 and Sisters Continuation Page 2

This site has now been visited times since the counter was installed.

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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 (on which I have drawn), as well as McKeen, Westinghouse/Baldwin, Hamilton/EMC/EMD, and Pullman's efforts.]

I must credit and thank the late John F. Campbell for much of the latest information about LIRR #401(1) and #402(2); since Sep 00, he had had an extremely detailed and accurate site focusing exclusively on the earliest history of the ALCo-GE-IR (AGEIR) locos, his "ALCO / General Electric / Ingersoll-Rand (AGEIR) Diesel-Electric Locomotives" site.  I heartily recommend it to you!  John Campbell had 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.

Some of what follows is duplicated deliberately from the original BOXCABS page.

The first production diesel locomotive, then called an "oil electric" locomotive, was one of four built for speculation; the first was fired up and ran in December 1923 and was released for demonstration in June 1924.  The first unit sold went to the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) in 1924.  It was built by a consortium of American Locomotive Company (ALCo), one of the world's largest steam locomotive manufacturers (itself an agglomeration of many smaller, but very significant, steam engine builders going back to the 1850s), the General Electric Company, already a well-recognized manufacturer of electric locomotives and components for electrics (and in co-operation with ALCo on these since the 1890s), and Ingersoll-Rand, a major builder of gasoline and diesel motors (and famed for its air compressors).  After the initial four were sold, another eleven were built.

Most of these early units were built for service in and around New York harbor's many "vest-pocket" marine terminal yards (CNJ, PRR, Erie, B&O, D&LW, etc.).  A few went to other harbor railroads and to major industries (Ford, IR, etc.) for in-house yard work.  The Long Island's first, #401, was a road switcher, built for mainline service!

That first engine, CNJ #1000, not only started the irresistible swing to dieselization, it also spawned a small family of boxcabs which the author finds fascinating.  Originally, they came in two sizes, both with virtually identical bodies and fittings, with slightly-rounded roofs and flat ends (looking very much like boxcars with windows - thus "boxcab"); 60-ton locos with a 300HP I-R oil engine, and 100-ton locos with two 300HP I-R oil engines.  The first units also were fitted with tube radiators mounted symmetrically at each end of the roof and curved to fit.

LONG ISLAND RAIL ROAD #401

(Photo from Train Shed Cyclopedia #43)

LIRR 401                    CNJ 1000

Z-Scale (1:220) Drawings

(This is no longer just a drawing!
See Even More Z on Z-scale page 5.)

The World's First Production Diesel Road Switcher

Also the first diesel to haul a revenue train on a long-distance run

[Photograph from Long Island Rail Road archives;
click on thumbnail image to bring up full 258Kb photograph.]

(refer to the BOXCABS and the beginning of the preceding
#401 and Sisters pages for information on predecessor units)

[Photograph from Long Island Rail Road archives;
click on thumbnail image to bring up full 910Kb photograph.]

Bonanza!  Kevin Endriss was kind enough to share with me (and thus with us) four prints he aquired of photos from the collection of George Votava; the text below each is what is written on the back of the prints.

These two are of #401 at Morris Park, after the radiators were rebuilt:

(photo from G. Votava, thence K. Endriss Collection - all rights reserved)
[Cropped thumbnail image - click on picture for full Votava image]

Long Island Railroad #401
Type:  0-4-4-0
Class:  AA-2
Weight:  203,300 lbs
T.F.:  60,000 lbs
Drivers:  36"
Builder:  Alco-GE-IR
Year:  November 1925
Builders Number:  66085
Photo:  Morris Park Yard, May 12, 1940

(photo from G. Votava, thence K. Endriss Collection - all rights reserved)
[Cropped thumbnail image - click on picture for full Votava image]

Long Island Rail Road #401
Type:  0-4-4-0
Class:  AA-2
Weight:  203,300 lbs
T.F.:  60,000 lbs
Horsepower:  600
Drivers:  36"
Builder:  Alco-GE-IR
Builder's Number:  66085
Year:  November 1925
Photo:  Morris Park Yard, July 9, 1950

These two are of #402-1, the Brill unit that was sent back; the first (at least) is a Brill builder's photo:

(photo from G. Votava, thence K. Endriss Collection - all rights reserved)
[Cropped thumbnail image - click on picture for full Votava image]

Long Island Rail Road #402 Type:  B-B
Builder: J.G. Brill
Year: January 1926 (December 1925 was written first and then crossed out)
Builder's Number: 22315
Photo: Philadelphia, PA., January 1926 (again December 1925 written and crossed out)
Notes: Built as 60 ton gas-electric. Tested on PRR in Philadelphia area,
returned to Brill in about three months. Resold to Grand Trunk Western in June 1934,
their number 7730. Converted to diesel-electric in May 1939. Renumbered 73 in December 1950.
Retired in June 1960. Scrapped in February 1961.

(photo from G. Votava, thence K. Endriss Collection - all rights reserved)
[Cropped thumbnail image - click on picture for full Votava image]

Long Island Rail Road #402
Type:  B-B
Builder:  J.G. Brill
Builder's Number:  22315
Date:  January 1926
Photo:  Philadelphia, PA, January 1926
Notes:  Built as 60 ton gas-electric.  Tested on PRR in Philadelphia area,
returned to Brill in about three months.  Resold to Grand Trunk Western,
their number 7730, in June 1934.  Converted to diesel-electric in May 1939.
Renumbered 73 in December 1950.  Retired in June 1960.
Scrapped in February 1961.

Here, courtesy of Art Huneke's ARRt's ARRchives, is an article from page 17 of the Sep 1951 Long Island Railroader about the demise of #401 (reposted 24 Feb 04 at much higher resolution as a further courtesy of Art):

(from A. Hunecke collection - all rights reserved)
[Cropped thumbnail image - click on picture for much larger image]

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When noted railroader-cum-rail-historian Bill Volkmer was 13, his folks took him out to East Williston to visit family for Easter 1950; while there, he took his trusty Amsco Pioneer fixed-focus camera in to Jamaica and shot* a picture (drastically cropped, here) with Jay Tower to the left and what certainly appears to be #401 in the far distance:   (16 Dec 08)

(Cropped from Apr 1950* picture from W. Volkmer collection - all rights reserved)
[this is a "reverse"-thumbnail image - click on picture for
much smaller image at true resolution]

[* - it is also possible that this is cropped from an image from a negative made by Dennis Lamont.]

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; that will take you in turn to a large collection of detailed photos of that rare bird.

William E. Miller, historian of the Electric Lines in Southern Ontario, ends his e-mail messages a with a great keyboard graphic (see the bottom of my Electric Boxcabs Continuation Page; I have taken the liberty of doctoring it to make a vague representation of #401:

___  ___  ___ _________ ___  ___  ___
__||||||||||_|_|_|_______|_|_|_||||||||||__
|_\___________________=___________________/_|
||_|      |_|       =      |_|  [_] |_| |
|401          LONG  = ISLAND    | |     |
[===============================|=|=====]
_|(o)\\=//(o)     |_|_|_|  |_|(o)\\=//(o)|_
===============================================