Were Baldwin switchers like the VO-1000 built with switcher bells or was this an option by railroads? The old black and white photos of Baldwins just out of the shop don’t appear to have them.
Also were they known to operate as well as EMD switchers?
Most, if not all, locomotives had a bell as a required warning when moving slowly through yards and such. Not just Baldwin, but many early ones were under the frame near the trucks. They were required to be heard, not seen.
Asking how well one brand of locomotive works/ran/operated/etc as compared to another brand will get a “discussion” akin to the redneck Ford/Chevy debates.
Locomotives are required to have bell, they are often tucked uner the frame or behind the step farings.
There were generally regarded as powerful engines known for their lugging abilities.
It wasn’t unusual for railroads to order first-generation diesels without a bell. They would save some money by installing a bell themselves from one of their recently retired steam engines. If you look at say an M-St.L RS-1 you can see that, NP RS-11’s and maybe some other NP diesels had steam engine bells too.
Baldwins were more powerful than EMD switchers, but ran into reliability / maintenance issues. Generally 1940’s-50’s Baldwins were either retired or re-engined by the mid-seventies.
Some crews liked the Baldwin switchers better than any others. The air throttle did not have any notches so the crew could apply exactly the amount of power they needed to move a cut of cars at the speed they wanted. Also the Westinghouse generator and traction motors, being larger than comparible GE or EMD equipment, could absorb more abuse without overheating.
A Baldwin switcher could tie on toeverything in the yard and walk off with it.
My uncle was quite proud of NYC’s S12s…His favorite saying was:If there is yard work to be done give me a 9300 to do it with…One the other hand he had no kind words for any of NYC’s Alco S1s.
Baldwin used a pneumatic throttle so BLW locomotives couldn’t MU with anything but another Baldwin.
I was in the road foreman of engines office at Brooklyn Yard in Portlan one day about 1964. The Espee had just bought the SW1200’s and one was assigned to Brooklyn. An engineer came in mad as a wet hen. He had got the new SW1200 and didn’t care for it. Said it wouldn’t pull nothin. He wanted a 2100 instead. (SP S12’s were 2100-57) Mr. Humphries told him to take the 2145.
I pulled a coupler on a PFE reefer from the use of too much throttle, too fast. Other builders products couldn’t compare with the ability of Baldwins to load quickly and pull every car in the yard, and do it at a walking pace. We used them at Taylor yard extensively, for hump service, often two at a time per cut, with the second unit along for trimming duties-although we weren’t above grabbing whatever power was laying about to trim, nothing like kicking and trimming cars cars in the bowl yard with a SDP45!
Dave