Following on from a question raised on the British Railway Operations thred I am aware of a number of European countries where ALCO diesels can be found. In both Portugal and Spain old ALCO locos can be found, though they’ve been re-engines with Caterpillar engines. I believe that ALCO’s could until recently be found in Greece too.
In Holland there are some ALCO electric locos built in 1948 still running for some of the OPen Access operators plus one preserved by a preservation group which has regular outings on the main lines.
I don’t believe there are ALCO diesels in Holland you may be confused by ALLAN a ex Dutch manufacturer, a few of the licence built Deumond-Schneider 2200 class are still in use by rail construction firm.
and a museum near Apeldoorn has a few 2400 class locomotives.
All open acces operators use class 66, class 58 and various makes of Vosslo locomotives.
I am with a group in England who has an ALCo S1 which worked in the steel works in Wales, UK. It was built in 1950 and worked for 35 years before retiring. It is due to start restoration next year. It is one of three in England. Ours is 804. 801 is advertising a restaurant and 803 is undergoing restoration as well.
There are several classes of Alco road-switchers in Greece on both the standard gauge and meter-gauge lines.
On the standard gauge, there are 900 HP RS8’s (A210’s), 2700 HP MX627’s (A451’s) and 3600 HP MX636’s (A501’s, being rebuilt by NRE)
On the meter gauge, there are 1300 HP DL537’s (A9100’s)
I’d say you’re thinking of BALDWIN. The NS 1200 class were Baldwins, built under license in Holland.
Budd supplied EMU’s to SNCB (Belgium), CFL (Luxembourg) and SNCF (France) also.
The info provided by CSSHEGEWISCH regarding Greece is quite correct, and your understanding about Portugal is also correct, although somewhat dated.
If anyone has any useful nuggets of information on European ALCo’s pass 'em on - in conjunction with the group mentioned above, I’m researching ALCo exports with a view to publication. Critical information will be credited!
The Dutch Railways (Nederlandse Spoorwegen, NS) had some US-built six-axle electric engines. I don’t know who manufactured them and whether they are still in service. For modellers, there existed at least Märklin and Fleischmann-built models in HO in two liveries.
The French National Railways (SNCF) owned a class of US-built six-axle diesels. They were built by Baldwin and are mentioned in the book “Locomotives from Eddystone” or something similar. The book appeared at Kalmbach’s
The Spanish railways are interesting in the that they used a rare large amount of builders from all over. Of coarse they had GM units and French type units but also Japanese type electrics and I beleive German type Hydrolic units.
The Dutch Electrics (class 1200) you refere to were designed by Baldwin/Westinghouse.
The truck castings came from USA but everything else was built at Werkspoor in Utrecht.
A few are still in service for ACT a general acces carrier.
The locomotives were originaly built as part of the Marshall plan.
see picture at: http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/nl/electric/1200/1200Hengelo1.jpg
When I was in Greece 2 years ago, some of the metre gauge ALCo’s were definitely still active - saw one on a passenger train, and two others being inspected/maintained. Info I’ve seen on a website indicates they are probably safe until sometime in 2006.
Spain had DL500 cab units with both 244 and 251 engines (like miniature PA-1s) and had boxcab DL500S units and the medium power DL535 roadswitchers.
Some DL500S and DL535 were sent to Argentina and were still in service two years ago. The broad gauge in Argentina is 1676mm, close to the 1668mm in Spain.