From a relative newbie: All of the rail fan magazines report with various degrees of detail the existence of various remaining ALCO units around the world. There seems to be some sort of idol worship going on. Can somebody please explain it?
I can only tell you (not from an idolatry standpoint) that I was born and raised with ALCos running and ruling the PC line near me. How I loved to listen to the “Burrr … Burrrr …” sound of those diesel electrics pulsing across that corn field. ALCo equipment stirs up the past in a time when ideas were abundant, the nation was free and people thought and spoke freely, capitalism still worked for the average person, the typical annual wage dividend meant $3,000 instead of $300 (or less), automotive production was still primarily based in the US, you could still buy American made tools, clothing, etcetera, jobs were plentiful, meat was untainted, eggs were eggs, milk was delivered in glass containers, man landed on the moon, Bobby Fischer won the world chess title at the time, Walter Cronkite and Howard Cosell were on, not the likes of losers like modern media and Howard Stern, trains kept on rolling through twice a day, twice a night, cabooses were still in use, it was commonplace to see an NE5 or NE6. Nowadays you have FRED - a flashing red beacon.
Maybe it’s just because I was a kid at that time and hadn’t a worry in the world other than perhaps a little elementary school homework, but I look back NOW and will tell you, “For what I’ve experienced, I wouldn’t trade it for all the tea in China”. ALCos were the root of it all. It’s the train’s “powerplant”. The power is the focus, the focus is the main attention and the attention is a point in the timeline for each individual, just like Dash 9s will work for some born in 1990 but will never do anything for me.
There was once upon a time when it was the best time to be alive.
I was born well after ALCO rolled out its last diesel, and can probably count the ones that I have seen running in regular service on my fingers. Yet, although I wouldn’t call it idolotry, I too am drawn to the mystique.
When you see a Studabaker (as I live in Indiana, I should know how to spell that) go down the road, it is like seeing a ghost or something out of the past. An ALCO is the same. Moreover, ALCOs bring you back to the days when railroading had more variety. The engines seemed more distinctive. Now, if I see an SD-40-2, I feel as though I am happy to see variety on the rails.
But most importantly, I think the reason there is such draw to ALCOs is they are a part of railroading history and the past, you can still see them doing their job if you know where to look for them, and those who are drawn to them, know–all too soon–there will be a time when we will not get to see them any longer.
Gabe
Not to start a flame war, but ALCO diesels had a reputation for pulling power. They earned admirers due to the reputation (not a proven fact) that they would pull their guts out to move freight over the hill and down the line. Another factor in thier popularity is that they smoked heavily when working hard earning them the title of “honorary steam locomtives”. Because they used Seltzer? Diesels as a prime mover, they pulsed and burbled even when idling, giving them an almost life-like quality. These are some of the other reasons ALCOs have a warm place in the hearts of railfans.
IF anyone els has recieved their copy of February’s issue of Trains there is a really neat article about the ALCO car housed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway museum. I grew up in Speedway where the track and the museum are held and I remember seeing this car but had never made the connection as to who it’s building company really was. Excellent reading!
As for the locos, I think the nostalgia factor is a big part of the ALCO mystique. I wasn’t around in their heyday but the few ALCOS I’ve seen (and heard) have kept me enthralled. They just kind of remind you of all that is good with railroads.
Mike
A big part of the Alco mystique is tied to the fact that it was a minority (non-EMD) builder and that it was also one of the Big 3 steam builders. It also lasted the longest of the former steam builders.
The “honorary steam locomotive” title was awarded to NKP’s PA’s in George W. Hilton’s review of “The Nickel Plate Story” in TRAINS in the late 1960’s.
Their GE electrical gear was considered more rugged than that of EMD which is why Alco’s were often assigned to drag freight and heavy switching service. Unfortunately, Alco never overcame the poor reputation of the 244 engine, which was rushed into production without proper debugging. The 251 is considered an excellent engine, but railroaders and other customers have long memories and the damage from the 244 was already done.
It’s StudEbaker, Gabe, and if the fine citizens of South Bend hadn’t been distracted by Notre Dames’ loss to OSU (Go Bucks!), they’d probably be heading toward you right now!
Used to work with an engineer who was originally from South Bend and as a young man, he delivered Studebakers around the country.
One of my best pre-employment railroad memories is sleeping overnight in a caboose–instead of the chirping of crickets outside, I had the chirping of one or more Alco S2s kicking cars in the yard.
To me, an idling Alco always sounded like it was anxious to get going somewhere.
Loved the smoke, especially when they’d be burning off the soot after a night of idling.
Loved the long throttle handle and the short reverser wrench.
And, if I’m not mistaken, some of the interior surfaces on the cabs were old tongue-and-groove wood, same as you’d commonly see inside railroad stations of the day.
[#ditto][#ditto]
Have to agree with Gabe on/and about the ALCo’s. They were a breed apart. But I am not putting my [2c]in about the “Car”… although the Golden Eagle was a really hot ride[:D][:D][:D]
You have to remember the one other factor : how does it look? ALco produced some beautiful products. Personally, I like their rs1-rs3’s. They were beautifully rounded, and looked good pulling almost anything. (Almost any paint job looked good on them too.) I’d imagine that they had good visibility with the short end first, for road use, and even okay visibility over the long hood (at least you could see over it at a distance, unlike a geep some something like that.) I think that some of their switchers just look like the “ideak” locomotive, like a little s2 with the single large headlight mounted smack in the middle of the front hood.
S2
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=118897
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=127138
RS unit
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=81686
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=93356
And, of course, the PA’s. I think they looked good, but not the best. They seemed to look a little wide to me, but they still looked great. They almost looked like a steam engine with ALco’s truck design, with the enormous side frames that diped and curved from journal box to journal box.
To me…and from what i hear…its the sound, the fact that ALCo was an underdog, smell (for me), the fact that not many were produced, and that 99% of them were butt-ugly.
Ninety-nine percent of Alco fans are folks that never worked on one.
I’ve run RS3s, RS11s, RS36s, DL600Bs, PAs, Century 415s (the steeple cab switchers), Century 425s, and Century 628s, and I can tell you that if I had a choice to take the Alco off the ready track, or take the equivalent EMD, it’d be no contest. I’d take the EMD.
Old Timer
Yea, man, brother!! Good tonnage (as in drag service) units but the dirtiest hardest riding internal cumbustion machines the railroads had. They even made the MofW folks irritated. That a-symetrical C-C truck simply beat the track to death.
After I would get done with a trip on one of them I would have to see a “bone-cruncher”.
However, the “alligators” (RS-11), PA and C-628 probably had the best designed sheet metal around. The only one that rode worth anything was the PA, and it was as stiff as a board.
They really built good locomotives - they just didn’t put “quality” (and all that that connotates) in their product.
[#ditto]
Couldn’t agree with you more stmtrolleyguy. BTW, don’t forget the Alco “Alligators” RS11s! They look fine too! [^] Gotta like the sound of an ALCO.
I can add some more now. After posting this question, I went to the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris, California (not too far from Los Angeles, and no, you don’t need to ride Air France to get there) on Jan. 4 and cashed in my kids’ Christmas gift from last year - the museum’s $150 rent-a-locomotive program. For the price, you get to run a 1942 ALCO road switcher, don’t know the model but museum sign said it spent the first part of its’ service life in Iran, helping the Russians fend off the Germans. After some brief instruction from a very competent volunteer instructor, we spent an hour running up and back on about a mile of track, working on air brake, bell, horn and throttle skills and just generally having a blast. This is a six-axle, 1,000-HP unit. Eric is right - the ride is prety rough. But the sounds, smells and just the experience are well worth the cost.
This unit does have some very nice wood work in the cab - tongue-and-groove panelling. The loco they use for the rental program is not the nicest one in the collection - there is an identical one much better cosmetically that they use for weekend operations and in their “Thomas the Tank Engine” weekend, and they have several other ALCO’s in various stages of restoration.
It was a great experience. Check it out at www.oerm.org. Now I just hope I can find some time to donate, working on some of their other worthy projects!
http://www.wpyr.com/multimedia/photossubmitted.html Here are some photo’s of alco C-C power in 3 foot gage that opperates every summer in alaska on the white pass and yukon railway. Picture’s #27,43 126 & #78 even shows a meet of two trains both with ALCO’s on the point. There’s still time to hear, smell and taste the ALCO legend if you can travel. Seeing Alco power is not unlike seeing a “woody” wagon or a “56” Nomad wagon go by. They are rare and will only get rarer.!!! As always ENJOY. [2c]
An earlier poster mentioned Alco’s reputation with employees who worked them. Can’t say much from personal experience.
But how can you explain the popularity of the early GE units?
Well, there is an easy explanation. In the 60s, as EMD’s fortunes grew and GE became a serious contender, many believe that railroads buying the products of both these locomotive builders had a better chance of courting freight traffic from the non-railroad sides of GE and GM. That was a lot of business.
Alco had virtually nothing to offer in that respect…no corporate cousins making Cadillacs, pickup trucks or washer-dryers
Losing ground in the railroad business, Alco went like gangbusters with the 251 engine in non-railroad applications and that marketing effort from 40 years ago can still be seen today. Alco 251s power several different classes of US Coast Guard cutters; an Alco-engined crawler moves the Space Shuttle from assembly building to launch pad at Cape Canaveral and there are hundreds of 251s in stationary power plant applications worldwide. And Alco 251 engines and parts are still readily available thru Fairbanks-Morse, owner of the Alco engine patents and designs.
Why do I like them? Because they sound different and have very classic design lines.
Hearing four C-420s on the Arkansas & Missouri make the assault on Winslow Hill may still be one of the great joys of the railroad world. Hearing an Alco 539 engine (RS-1, S-1, etc.) at full throttle or an idle is truly a delight. Listening to three 251s on the point of a northbound Grand Canyon Railway passenger train with perhaps a dozen cars in tow leaving Williams is truly spectacular railroading in 2006. By comparison, an EMD F40 accomplishing the same task is like listening to a leaf blower.
I was under the impression that GE and Alco were partners, but GE started building their own largely because of problems at Alco. Besides the 244 engine issue early on, didn’t the Century’s have a number of problems? I recall an article in Trains or Classic Trains about an Illinois Central C636 throwing itself off the tracks. Crews hated these beasts because of severe rocking at certain speeds.
There was an excellent Trains special issue on Alco a few years ago. As a kid, my first toy train was American Flyer with the SF Warbonnet PA’s. I think that made me an Alco fan for life.
DRBusse asketh:
“But how can you explain the popularity of the early GE units?”
Louisville and Nashville, along with the SCL, was an early purchaser of a lot of GEs (the son of SCL’s Mechanical Department head was rumored to have gone to college on a GE scholarship). L&N served the “Appliance Park” which was a GE installation at Louisville that shipped a lot - and I mean a LOT - of stuff over the L&N, and some said that had a lot to do with it.
But back in the '70’s an L&N General Road Foreman of Engines told me that L&N would have been better off to buy two GE locomotives and have one of them idling at each end of Appliance Park for the GE guys to see, and then do all their other work systemwide with EMDs.
If you get into it, I’ll bet you find that a lot of railroads of that era bought GEs because with Alco going out of the picture, they were faced with being at the mercy of a monopolistic EMD.
There came a time, later, when GEs were actually as good as EMDs (so some folks say), so sales could be made on merit. But early on, it wasn’t so.
Old Timer
Was the S2 switcher a good locomotive ?
There were over 1000 sold during the 1940s.