ATLAS ALCO HH660 souther pacific question

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hi

I have seen the ATLAS ho ALCO HH660 and it looks very good.This particular one is a version of the tiger stripes but WITHOUT the aluminium front and back side here the stripes are also on the front and back ends

Does anybody know in which time period this switcher can be placed ? I know that SP purchesed 3 of them 1001-1002-1003 in the early 1940s but i am unable to find more informations in general anybody knows when this loco was retired ?

thanks very much

stefano

2

Stefano,

Just a suggestion: Given that this is a prototype question, it would be better asked on the Prototype information for the modeler forum.

Tom

3

Here’s a web site that you may want to bookmark for future reference pertaining to prototype locomotives, listing who bought what and when. It doesn’t answer your question about when they were retired, however.

http://www.trainweb.org/jaydeet/hh.htm

Just as a suggestion, have you checked with the SP Historical and Technical Society? The answer may be available in their archives.

http://www.sphts.org/

4

I will immediately work on your links

thanks for your help

regards

stefano

5

Stefano,

Here’s another good site to peruse –

http://www.sphts.org/pmcclosky/spwebresources.html

6

thanks again for the links

7

The tiger stripe scheme with silver on the ends was used on “switchers” that were actually used more as light road locomotives more than as switchers. Other clues would be train indicator boards on the hood. To the best of my knowledge, none of the HH660’s was ever considered a light road engine.

An example of a switcher used as a light road engine can be found here: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=150679&nseq=101

Although the engine in the picture is in SP’s “Bloody Nose” scheme, it would originally have had silver paint on the ends. Note the light group on the nose (and on the cab) as well as the train indicators (number boards) ahead of the cab.

SP TR6 (END SW8 cow and calf) http://espee.railfan.net/nonindex/sw_photos/4601b_sp-tr6a-fred_a_stindt.jpg These were used initially on the Northwestern Pacific as road units, IIRC, Here’s a pic of SP #4601 separated from its “calf” and equipped with a trolley pole for triggering crossing signals on the Pacific Electric.

The SP was pretty big on using switchers for light road service

8

Many thanks for the excellent informations and links

much appreciated

stefano

9

Thanks very much for the great informations and links

much appreciated

stefano

10

I was under the impression that they were used as switchers at the Oakland Docs.