Were HH660s ever used as road switchers and as helpers? I haven’t been able to find any info. Were the trucks not suitable for these applications? Thanks.
I am sure someone will find a picture of a HH660 used as power for a ‘local’. Remember, this is a small engine(similar to a SW1). They were mostly used as ‘house’ engines, working small yards or freight houses. Larger engines(1000 hp) were usually used for ‘lead’ jobs in yards. I have seen the S-1(follow-on to the HH660) used as a local engine on light rail branch lines.
As far as a helper, I would suspect they might be used as a ‘pusher’ to get a road freight out of a yard.
Jim
Somewhere in my collection i’ve got a slide of a HH660 (rare model on the SP by the way-all 3 were confined to the Oakland Mole for passenger switching, thus a rare sight anywhere else) on the point of a manifest in South San Francisco with a de-skirted, black paint GS-3 4-8-4 for road power , as there was no need for helpers in the immediate Bay Area , I suspect it was efficient way to transfer power to its new location as I have slides of similar odd ball power combos with FM switchers on the point for example, this time with a GS-4 demoted to freight service, SP had similar balancing rule in regards to steam power.
Dave
Guys,Here’s the thing.
Early yard diesels was prone to catching fire or breaking down so they stayed in the yard or on urban locals…
According to Larry Brashear’s book, Santa Fe Locomotive Development, the Santa Fe tested its first Alco HH-660, no. 2300, in branchline service on lines around Chicago and Topeka, Kansas, in 1935. The tests were a success, and the 2300 was definitely more efficient than the older steam power typically assigned to branchline duty at that time.
Nevertheless, the Santa Fe waited for the development of General Purpose or road switcher-type locomotives before dieselizing its branchline operations in the early 1950s. One reason may have been the Blunt trucks of the early Alcos, which were effective for low-speed work but not as smooth riding at road speeds as other types. Also a factor was the cost of diesel power. The Santa Fe paid $85,000 for the 2300 in 1934, about twice the cost of an equivalent steam engine. That gave the road an incentive to assign the diesel to three-trick yard jobs, where it would be working around the clock.
So long,
Andy
Some early diesel “switchers” did work on freight trains. A perfect example is the line I grew up by, the Minneapolis Northfield and Southern (now Progressive Rail) “high line” through Bloomington and Richfield MN into the southern edge of Minneapolis. In the fifties-sixties they used Baldwin VO-1000’s on way freights, or an FM H-10-44 quite often. Of course this was a suburban branch-line, and speeds were normally around 10 MPH, and the crew tied up the train at the runaround track at end of the line to walk over to the bowling alley for lunch…not exactly a high-speed mainline operation.
[;)]