Back in August of 1978 I woke my dad up early on each morning of our family’s California vacation for some pre-breakfast railfanning. One of the most spectacular days we had was when we visited the Southern Pacific Bull Ring in downtown LA (which we mistakenly thought was the southern end of Taylor Yard).
Here’s my favorite view from that day, showing the SP boneyard, with some C630s, U25Bs, S6s, and RSD12 and a C415.
If you click on Bull Ring on either of the photos, you can see some more scans that I had done about a year ago from that same morning (and had shared earlier).
Samfp1943… That engine is a C-415. From what one old timer told me, it was Alco’s attempt to build a locomotive that would work well on the lines where center cab electrics had once prowled and SP bought them for their old Pacific Electric lines, although I don’t think they really ended up working there at all. I believe they ended up just being used the same places that GEEPS and S6s and SW1200s were used.
By the way, if the story above is not true, I have to plead ignorance… as it is what was related to me by an old rail, whom I spoke to once and whose name I don’t think I even knew… it’s not something that I have verified anywhere.
There were only 26 of the C415’s built and 10 went to SP and 10 to RI. The first website shows all the owners, and if I am not too far off at some point in the 70’s or 80’s there was an HO model of the critter offered, although I do not remember the mfg, might have been Rivarossi (?) or A
I’m pretty familiar with the C415’s, as Rock Island assigned their fleet to the Chicago Terminal. They were equipped with the medium-height cab, unlike the SP fleet with the high cabs. RI used them in yard and transfer service right up to the end.
From my readings back then, I was under the impression that the C-415 was ALCo’s answer to EMD’s 2nd generation diesel ‘MP’ switcher series, and also to GE’s dominance of the small switcher market with it’s 44- and 45-ton center-cab units, and 70-ton end-cab units, etc. They were rated at 1,500 HP, and has a weight of 240,000 lbs. - 120 tons, so maybe they were over-big for GE’s market niche. More technical data and drawings of both RI and SP versions of them can be found at - http://www.thedieselshop.us/DataC415.HTML
Paul North.
EDIT: These articles from back then might provide more insight into the nature of the C-415:
Over the weekend I re-read a couple of the articles that I referenced above and I believe it was this one that said that ALCo intended the C-415 to be marketed as a ‘utility’ locomotive, without further elaboration. I take it they meant not as in ‘power plants’, but as in ‘utility fielder’ = can fill many different roles. The same article also said that the 'C stood for ‘Century’ series, and I surmise that the ‘4’ in the ‘415’ stood for 4 axles, and the ‘15’ stood for 1500 HP - similar to the model designation format for the C636, for example.
Locomotive showroom 67/68 Trains, December 1967 page 31
diesels available in 1967 and 1968
( ALCO, DIESEL, EMD, GE, “MORGAN, DAVID P.”, ENGINE, LOCOMOTIVE, TRN )
That is how Alco’s model number conventions went for the Century series of locomotives, pretty straightforward, but Alco also used a Specification number in their catalog in addition to model number. In the case of the C415 it was simple DL-415…but for other models it was more arcane…the fairly popular C-420 carried a specification number of DL-720A for instance…