and Z-Scale (1:220) Model Railroading;
visit my RR page for a master RR index.
ALCo
started commercial dieselization in a big way in 1924; see my BOXCAB pages, starting with Boxcab Oil Electrics. The original engine, CNJ #1000 and a few of her sisters still survive (and even run).
George Elwood has many ALCo photos on his fabulous site and also has a major, illustrated 1947 history of ALCo, especially the Schenectady works, well worth the time to read.
ALCo Love Song - The sun doesn't rise and set on PAs and RS-1s alone, although there are damn few "modern" diesels I love better, unless it's one of those 6-axle RSD-1s rebuilt from RS-1s or, even more handsome, the MLW RSC-13s (a Canadian-built lengthened RS-1 with C-trucks)! RS-2s and -3s or RSD-4s or -5s, with their rounded cabs, just don't do it for me!
USA/TC official photograph (Photo: R. Tourret Collection) and
US Army RSD-1 8679 at Fort Bragg NC, May 74 (Dave Goss photo)
(both photos from RSD-1 History page -
the former processed by SB,III to bring up detail;
the latter has that "unfortunate" Euro-cab, but what a great shot!)
[Thumbnail images - click on the pictures for the full images.]
It took a Uruguayan to send me a page with a link to the "
History of the ALCO-GE 127 ton DIESEL LOCOMOTIVES RSD-1 (USA/TC
8000-56 & 8600-99)" page!
Now, at long last, the Berlinerwerke has
uncovered an old, long-forgotten project; it has "rediscovered" the
fabled BW-ALCo RSD-1m:
{This aberration was perpetrated by the Berlinerwerke Art Dept.;
see Model Railroad page 3 for the full story.}
(Photo by and © Copyright 2001 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail image - click on the picture for the full image.]
{Missing image restored 20 Jun 08}}
A note on six-axle RS nomenclature - ALCO, illogically, calls the A-1-A versions
the RSC-series and the C versions the RSD-series. There's a good reason
for the two; the A-1-A truck has equally spaced axles because it only has
traction motors on the end axles, facing inward, whereas the C truck has one
axle far away from the center axle because there are motors on all three axles
and the greater spacing accomodates two motors back to back -
RSC = A1A = 0o-0-o0 vs. RSD = C = 0o-0o-o0 (got it? - there'll be a test!).
See also RS-1s and Six-Axle Sisters.
Joe Testagrose was kind enough to post these old photos of D&H PA-1 #16 on the 'Net; here she is (was) at (l-to-r) Albany (NY) on 24 Nov 68, at Colonie (NY, undated), and at Hagerstown (MD) on 05 Feb 72:
There's news of #16 further down this page.
While at the Amherst Show at Springfield, Mass., on 05 Feb 00, I spotted this ALCo-GE builder's plate and had to buy it:
[Photo (06 Feb 00) by and © 2000 S. Berliner, III]
Of course, it's actually a clutch-back tie tack or pin and is NOT from a boxcab and is only 1" wide but, at $3.50, I couldn't resist the "bargain"!
It's made by Sundance Marketing of Portland, Oregon; I'll try to find the distributor's name.
Elsewhere on my site, I note that I live just off the LIRR's Oyster Bay branch where FA-1 and FA-2 push-pull power cabs were still facing west and sounding their Nathan chime whistles all day and night until the end of 1999. I've moved around a bit, but almost always within earshot of the sound and for many years (and now again) just up a glen from the line. They no longer had motive power but they still sounded as sweet as a loco can when signalling westbound (going south, here). The new DE30AC diesels (and the shortly-to-be-seen dual-power DM30AC locos), both ugly, but growing on me (see "EPILOGUE to #401" toward the end of my LIRR boxcabs page) are taking over and sound just as good! Thank you, LIRR! All the FAs were spoken for, however. Our museum site in Oyster Bay will have the FA cab portion (and obs car end) that was in the LIRR exhibit at the 1964 Fair in New York City's Flushing Meadows (Mar 99 - they are already on site at Mitchel Field preparatory to moving the whole shebang to the Oyster bay site). Take a look at them on LIRR MIscellany on my LIRR Continuation Page 4.
Oh, heck; this IS an ALCo page; here they are again:
[Thumbnail image - click on the picture for the full (120Kb) image.
Photo (24 Sep 99) by and © 1999 S. Berliner, III]
[This aberration was perpetrated by Engine #35,
ably assisted by the Berlinerwerke Art Dept.]
{You probably should be made aware that neither the cab nor the obs were from LIRR equipment.}
ALCo
was originally the
American Locomotive Company,
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, enumerated below). ALCo is perhaps most famous today for its UP "Challenger" 4-6-6-4 (one of which, #3985, still runs) and its "Big Boy" 4-8-8-4 (one of which, #4018@, in Texas, was supposed to be restored to service@) and its glorious PA-series passenger cowl diesels (see below).
@ - Big Boy #4018
- the restoration project never really started and #4018 has not moved since the Fall of 1998! The linked site has not been updated since about mid-2000 and no longer has any information whatsoever, other than a line stating "News Coming Soon . . . ", which it doesn't; the movie project stalled and nothing much was accomplished. The loco sits, as it has for some 50 years, at the Age of Steam Railroad Museum at Fair Park in Dallas, Texas, operated by the Southwest Railroad Historical Society.
A note on usage - I have always used ALCo, in lieu of ALCO, for the American Locomotive Company and have been taken to task for the affectation;
I don't remember where I first ran across it, but I'm not about to change now.
The American Locomotive Company built some of finest and longest-lived steam locomotives ever; a good "local" example is this "little" 0-6-0 steam switcher I stumbled across at the Whippany Railway Museum, "Morris County's Railroad Museum", in Hanover Township, while tooling across New Jersey on 01 Aug 00 She is Morris County Central's 135 ton #4039, the "Earl H. Gil", built by ALCo in November, 1942 for the U. S. Army's Class 155; a war baby.
(Photo 01 Aug 00 by and © 2000 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved.)
[Thumbnail image - click on the picture for a larger image.]
A "new" boxcab!
Ingersoll-Rand Demonstrator #8835
(photo provenance uncertain; possibly from 1980s AAR flyer)
Protoype ALCo-GE-IR Boxcab
The first production diesel locomotive, then called an "oil electric" locomotive, was one of four (or five) boxcab locomotives built for speculation; the first was fired up and ran in December 1923 and was released for demonstration in June 1924. It toured on the following lines (and plants): NYC, B&O, CNJ; NH, Union Freight RR, B&M, LIRR, Bethlehem Steel, RDG, DL&W, Hoboken Mfrs., New Jersey Zinc Co., and the Alan Wood Iron & Steel Co., and was returned to I-R's Phillipsburg plant. The first unit sold went to the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) in 1924. It was built by a consortium of ALCo, GE, 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 still famed for its air compressors). After the initial four were sold, another eleven were built. In 1929, ALCo acquired the McIntosh & Seymour Engine Co. and dropped the I-R engines, utilizing its own new M&S engines.
ALCo fan(atic)s should have a gander at Tom Gibson's ALCoHaulers page. There is also good information on Rick Blanchard's Diesel Chronology and Motive Power Review, Andrew Toppan's old page.
Another great ALCo site is Rolf Stumpf's ALCo WORLD.
John Reay has a really fabulous site on Canadian MLW/ALCos!
While I'm not about to list all ALCo sites, another good one is JMech's ALCO NEWS AND INFORMATION page (don'cha just hate unsigned pages!).
ALCohaulics will also have to watch the ALCo Historic Photos collection site, not all 10,000 or so pictures any more, but lots, anyway, in Schenectady, New York, under the protective wing of the Mohawk-Hudson Chapter of the NRHS and run by a dedicated group of volunteers.
The AHP currently has no e-mail address. Write to them at:
Alco Historic Photos
P. O. Box 655
Schenectady, NY 12301
Incidentally, I had the pleasure of being at the Adirondack Steel Foundry plant [Mechanicville? (a.k.a Mickeyville to the locals),NY] on an SAE trip ca. 1952/53 when they were pouring ALCo PA/PB truck frames from arc furnaces!
ALCo PA Love Song
My favorite loco in my favorite colors in my favorite scale (Z):
(Photo from Ztrack by permission)
{Thumbnail image; click on picture for larger image.}
5-stripes, trainphone antennae, and all!
There are those who believe the old ALCo "Black Maria" (NH) and
DL-103/105/107/109/110 chisel-nose cowl diesels to be the loveliest diesels (sounds
oxymoronic, eh?) ever built but far more, perhaps a majority of all diesel fans, are
madly in love with the successor DL-304/305 cowl unit, ALCo's PA-1 and its almost
identical sisters, the PA-2, etc.
These units went off-line long ago but a few survived on the D&H line along Lake
Champlain until sold off to Mexico, where they ended up scrapped. We've had
to content ourselves with photos and with four-axle "baby brother" MLW FP-4s and
ALCo FA-1 and -2 units.
Well, I got the nicest Christmas present possible! On 15 Dec 99, I happened to
pick up the special January 2000 Centennial issue of TRAINS and what to my
wondering eyes should appear but a big blue engine drawn by eight tiny reindeer!
Well, not quite that.
On page 17 is a photo taken in the former Chihuahua Pacific shop at Empalme,
Sonora, Mexico, of the hulks of the two remaining ALCo PA-1 diesels, ex-D&H
#16, which is pictured in D&H service at the top of this page (and which looks as if it
had rolled down a mountainside and is going to the Smithsonian) and #18 (which is
going out to Dale McCormack in Oregon for restoration) being loaded on flatcars for
return to the U.S.!!! Ah, bliss!
Looking more carefully at the TRAINS photo of derelict hulk #16 being placed
on the flatcar, I noticed that whatever severe damage was already inflicted on the
carbody was being greatly worsened! The clown loading the body has run a
cable and sling around the front at the seam between the nose and the carbody
proper, without a spreader(!), thereby crushing the marker light housing and
pushing it into the nose side sheetmetal!
Incidentally, if the Smithsonian is getting #16, I'll bet we have Bill Withuhn, Curator of
Land Transportation and fellow NRHS member, to thank.
Railfan & Railroad, August 1999, pg. 27, has views of ALCo PA-1 hulks #16 and
#18 on shop trucks at "Enpalme" on 13 Feb 99.
[I note that the left front marker light housing is NOT crushed on that
photo!]
Wonder of wonders! Doyle McCormack and James "PennEngineer"
Aslaksen have put up a superb Website
about the restoration (actually counterfeiting) of #18 as NKP #190 (why NKP? -
because Doyle likes it that way)! Doyle advises that ex-D&H #16, née
AT&SF #59, is currently stored on the P&W railroad at Albany, Oregon,
awaiting the Smithsonian's guidance (hope it fares better than the Stratoliner!).
Talk about ALCo love, you've GOT to see Andy Inserra's
Alcos in the USA and Canada and Beyond site! This teen covers a lot of
ground and has recent photos of the PA's in Doyle McCormick's tender care. He
also has this fantastic Jun 79 "David and Goliath" shot (by Tim Darnell- "TAD") of LIRR
GE 25-tonner #398 towing dead FA #600 (probably in the Morris Park yard) - unless,
of course, the FA is pushing the GE:
[cropped and enhanced by SB,III from 6/79 photo by Tim Darnell ("TAD"), courtesy of A. Inserra, - all rights reserved]
Talking about FAs, there's a really odd FA-1½ body shell in HO; see my
PRR cont. page 0.
[For an ALCo FA Love Song, click here.]
(28 Feb 05)
LIRR HEP Cabs
As long as we are talking about the automotive-styled PA cabs and their baby-sibling FA cabs, didja know that the Long Island Rail Road had a fleet of cab units with (in most cases) their prime movers removed and Head End (housekeeping - heat and a/c) Power sleds substituted. Bryan Turner documents these LIRR HEP (Head End Power) ALCo FA-1 and -2 (as above - and EMD F-7 and F-9) cabs.
ALCo AUTOMOBILE
Didja know that ALCo built automobiles? And cup-winning racers (1909 and 1910) , as well?
See my AUTOMOTIVE page.
(Photo from Senior Times Website)
For pictures of the 1910 racer, see the top of the ALCo continuation page.
Didja know that ALCo built one of my favorite engines of all time,
the three-cylinder monster UP 9000-class 4-12-2 "Union Pacific" type engines?
(Photo from Bud Law on the 'Net, from an undated, unused postcard noted "Laramie, Wyo.".)
[Thumbnail image - click on the picture for the full, huge image.]
This class had the longest rigid wheelbase ever, at 30' 8" (368")!
The huge Pennsy eight- and ten-coupled duplexes only ran around 25' - 27'; specifically:
Q1 4-6-4-4 26' 10"
S1 6-4-4-6 26' 6"
Q2 4-4-6-4 26' 4½"
T1 4-4-4-4 25' 4"
J1 2-10-4 24' 4"
I1 2-10-0 22' 8"
N2 2-10-2 22' 4"
N1 2-10-2 22' 2"
with the other long-legged PRR ten-coupled engines shown just for reference.
Didja know that ALCo built the UP's 844/8444 Northern and her sisters
and the 4-6-6-4 Challengers and 4-8-8-4 Big Boys?
Didja know that Big Boy #4018@ was to have rolled in 1999? But don't bother to see the
Official Restoration Site for Big Boy 4018; it just isn't so.
Didja know that 4-8-4 #833 moved in February 1999?
See coverage at Moving #833 on my Road Loads page,
and also on page 50 of the June 1999 Railfan & Railroad,
where you can also see the Centipede tender on a giant flat-bed.
How many of you ALCohaulics have seen the circulators (Challengers and Big Boys did not have thermic syphons) or the stoker screw of a Big Boy? Here they are, on #4006 at the (then) National Museum of Transport outside St. Louis on 03 Jul 82:
(Photos 03 Jul 82 by and © 2000 - S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
{Missing images restored 20 Jun 08}}
ALCo History
The Schenectady Locomotive Engine Manufactory, Schenectady, New York, was organized in 1848. In May of 1851, a new company, the Schenectady Locomotive Works, was formed. On June 24, 1901, the Schenectady Locomotive Works merged with seven other companies to form the American Locomotive Company; they were Manchester, Brooks, Dickson, Cooke, Pittsburgh, Rhode Island and Richmond.
In 1904, ALCo bought control of the 21-year old Locomotive & Machine Company of Montreal
, Ltd. (later the Montreal Locomotive Works*, Ltd.).
Then, in 1905, ALCo purchased the Rogers Locomotive Works of Paterson, New Jersey, founded in 1837, thus completing the firm that most modern ALCo enthusiasts know (or even remember).
* - Alco Products stopped producing domestic locomotives in 1969 and sold their locomotive designs to Montreal Locomotive Works (but not design rights to their diesel engines).
The September 2001 issue of TRAINS features ALCo ("American Locomotive Company - 100 Years") - a group of keen, insightful articles, well illustrated (with a great 31 Aug 46 shot of the year-old, Otto Kuhler-designed, DL-109-like "Black Maria" B-B unit #1500c on a passenger train at New Britain, Connecticut (page 40).
Volume 66, Number 4, 2001 of the National Railway Bulletin (National Railway Historical Society) is devoted to "The Rise and Fall of the AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVE COMPANY".
For sheer ALCo horror, see photos of the scrapping of a real (12" = 1') C424 on the ALCo Continuation Page 1.
There's a firm up in Canada that sells old ALCOs and parts; Benoit Girard Metal, Inc. (photos).
ALCos in Portugal - moved to ALCo Continuation Page 1 on 06 Mar 2002.
See also ALCo Continuation Page 1, with more about RS-1s and Six-Axle Sisters.
THUMBS UP!
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S. Berliner, III
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2003, 2004, 2005,
2008
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