The nice H0 Atlas HH660 is close to the HH600 used by IC since 1934. That is within the timespan of my (so far) steam only project.
My question is about the use of the HH600 (Road numbers 9006 - 9013) at the IC. Did they do switching in dense industrial areas only or did do also some light road service pulling local freight trains? I assume they have not been used for heavy switching e.g. in classification yards.
I would like to use them with short (six cars plus cab) local freight trains to serve the fictional small town of my layout. The town is far to small to get it’s own switcher. The engine of the local had to do the switching en route.
i think the IC used them mainly around downtown chicago. congress street yard, freight houses and that area. the city of chicago lake front ordinance required the use of electric power and the city later accepted diesel locomotives as being the equivalent of electrics. the hh600’s were too light for transfer work so they were used primarily as yard switchers. i seriously doubt if they were ever used on a local.
the atlas engine looks like a later style than the ones the IC had.
According to The Yard Limit web site, the IC HH600s came out in June '35 and had 1) ladder steps rather than the staircase steps and, 2) louvers instead of flaps, which came out with the '38 design. With that being the case, it would take some modification to back date the Atlas offering to the earlier prototype.
Reinhard,The early Alco and EMD switchers was kept close to the shop since both had a tenancy to break down or catch fire…So,most early switchers spent their time working a yard or nearby urban industrial branch.
Railroads soon found diesel switchers - despite some early reliability issues - to be very desireable compared to steam switchers. Steam switchers could only work so much each day before they had to go back to the roundhouse for servicing. With a diesel it just kept working thru the crew shifts.
FWIW I’m fine with “close enough” modelling, if the Atlas switcher looks pretty close to the one you’re interested in modelling, I’d use it. With a good paint and lettering job and some weathering, it should look fine. [:)]
Early diesels were quite expensive(many times they were 3 times the cost of an equal steam engine). They also need a fueling/servicing facility that may be different from what was available locally. A small 600-660 hp diesel switcher like the HH660 was equal to a small 0-6-0 ‘house engine’. Many times these were used around passenger stations, industry yards or freight houses. In a terminal area, the engine could be used around the clock(working 3 shifts), and that made them very attractive to a railroad. The capability to replace 2 or 3 steamers over a 24 hour period with a single diesel was a big selling point.
In later years, if they were under 100 tons, they ‘might’ wind up running on light rail branch lines that normal larger diesels could not operate over. The CGW operated Alco S-1’s(follow-on to the HH660) on several light rail branches in Iowa & Minnesota,
I have a small 4 track yard on my layout that services a branch line and a large meat packing plant by the yard. I have a Walthers SW1(EMD’s 600 hp switcher) that provides service to this yard. The SW1 switches the yard, and spots meat reefers at the Swift & Co packing house.
On the SP at least it was easy to distinguish which switchers did/might operate beyond yard limits: they had train-number boards installed.
SP’s earliest (1950-51) higher-horsepower diesel road switchers for light branch lines (too-lightly built for the Baldwin 6-axle 1500-horsepower road switchers) were two-unit cow-and-calf sets of TR6 and TR6Bs with a combined horsepower of 1600.
Quoting from Strapac’s Southern Pacific Diesel Locomotive Compendium Volume 1 regarding SP’s small diesel switchers (under-1,000 horsepower units, including Alco’s “HH-660”, S-1, S-3, Baldwin’s DS-4-4-660, and EMC’s SW-1): “Eventually all of them gravitated to assignments suitable to their somewhat limited capabilities. The Alcos worked passenger depot jobs and peddler assignments on light rail all over northern California, while the Baldwins and most of the SW-1’s frequently found work on the Pacific Electric.” I believe at least one SW-1 also ended up working at the railroad’s shops at the end of its career