Hello forum,
In the June 2007 issue of Railroads Illustrated they show a picture (page 36) of a locomotive belonging to the GM&O that was built by Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation of Pascagoula, Mississippi. The unit is shown at Mobile, Alabama in 1963 shortly before it was retired.
Anyone know the story here? Did Ingalls try to penetrate the locomotive market or was this some special project?
Take care,
Gregory
according to MR’s Diesel Locomtives… Ingalls had a full line of Diesel’s offered…the model 4S that GM&O bought was a demonstrator unit of thier “intermediate” model…they offered everything from 660 hp switchers to a a1a-a1a 2000 hp passenger unit…the GM&O 4S was the only unit built…
And GM&O traded it in on a GP35! OUCH![banghead]
It’s a strange and interesting beast. At first glance I thought it was a Krauss Maffei (like the D&RGW and SP units), but realized it was something entirely different.
Here’s a website with photos of an HO brass model of this unique loco:
wonder if they swapped the trucks??? [:D]
GM&O after initial break in period used the locomotive out of its maintenance base at Jackson, Tennessee. Primarilly used on locals that ran down into Mississippi, and returned back to the Jackson area. From the conversations that I had with GM&O employees it was a “shop pet” one of a kind and they treated it like their mascot. One of the prime locales for it to be seen when operational was the small yard at Corinth, Ms., where it could be observed from the US 78 overpass.
Hello,
Even though it kind of looks strange, it seems that it could have held some promise of being made into a sucessful locomotive. Would have been interesting to see what could have become of the whole product line from Ingalls. With their engineering resources and experience in heavy manufacturing, they may have produced a good piece of equipment.
Gregory