Modern history of diesel-electric and electric locomotives

[Astronuc]

I recently came across some good histories of GE and ALCO locomotives.

ALCO was the second of the two preeminent steam locomotive manufacturers, the other being Baldwin. Diesel-electric locomotives were replacing steam locomotives, although steam continued through the 1950s, especially on railroads hauling coal. Heavy electrics have been around a long time, with one model lasting about 60 years, but diesel-electric locomotives ultimately became the dominant form of motive power on US railroads.

ALCO had a troubled history with the transition from steam to diesel. There early prime-movers had reliability problems, and by the time they developed their most successful prime-mover, the railroads were in trouble and GE, which had been an ALCO supplier of generators and motors, became a competitor. ALCO also made a strategic error in using aluminum wiring in their locomotives, which lead to problems with fires in poor connections, and ALCO had to replace the aluminum wiring with copper at their expense.

A great history on GE - https://www.assemblymag.com/article...ric-leads-the-way-in-locomotive-manufacturing

https://www.american-rails.com/alco.html
http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/railroads/alcohistory/index.html - back in the beginning
https://utahrails.net/articles/alco-v-emd.php

EMD was a division of General Motors Corps. (GM), and was subsequently sold to Progress Rail, a division of Caterpillar.
https://www.american-rails.com/emd.html

 

[256bits]

Interesting stuff.

 

[Mark44]

ALCO also manufactured 25 "Big Boy" locomotives for "Uncle Pete," the Union Pacific RR. There are 8 surviving examples, one of which - 4014 - came out of retirement, and was completely restored. It's been back in service for about the last year as part of UP's steam program.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Pacific_Big_Boy
These were some of the largest locomotives ever manufactured, measuring almost 133 ft, including the tender, and weighing well over 1,000,000 lb, including the tender.
Their wheel arrangement was 4-8-8-4, meaning a 4-wheel pilot truck, an 8-wheel set of drivers, another 8-wheel set of drivers, and a 4-wheel trailing truck supporting the cab.
I've never seen one of these in the flesh, but I have seen a cab-forward at the Calif State Museum of Rail History in Sacramento. These locomotives were almost as big as the Big Boys, lacking only a pair of wheels in the trailing truck (which was at the front in the cab-forwards). These locomotives were essentially Yellowstone locomotives that were set up so that the engineer and stoker could look out what normally would have been the rear of the cab. Since the tender was behind what would have been the front of the locomotive, these were fired by oil, would could be pumped from the tender.
Southern Pacific RR ran these cab-forwards on their routes over the Sierra Nevada mountains. The large number of long tunnels on this route got so smoke-filled that the engineers nearly suffocated, so turning the locomotives around was a reasonable solution.

 

[Dr.D]

In the mid-1970s, I worked for a company that made stand-by gen sets for a wide variety of customers. Our smaller units were mostly powered by Detroit Diesels, but the really big sets almost always used EMD 645 engines (locomotive engines, 645 in^3 per cylinder). Both the DD and EMD engines at that time were two stroke engines.

One of the biggest gen sets we ever built had two 20 cylinder EMD 645s, one driving each end of a generator. The whole rig was close to 50 ft long, and the ground shock when it was started.

These big engines were equipped with 6 starters, symmetrially arranged around the flywheel. There were two pairs of air starters and a single pair of explosive starters. The air starters used compressed air stored in large receivers alongside the engine. In a critical application, such as black start in a nuclear plant, the sequence was (a) try first pair of air starters, (b) if that fails, try second pair of air starters, (c) if that fails, repeat (a), if that fails, repeat (b), if that fails, try the explosive starters (you only get one shot at these).

 

[Astronuc]

anorlunda posted about working in the old ALCO Schenectady shops after it was bought and coverted into an office building.
https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/modern-us-locomotive-design-and-operation.1048539/post-6836044

Some local history of Schenectady and ALCO

Alco PA The complete story
The PA locomotive was a cab design passenger locomotive similar to the FA freight design, but the PAs were longer and used 2 A1A trucks as compared to 2 B trucks under the frame. A1A indicates the outer axles are powered/motored, while the middle truck is unpowered. B truck means two axles powered, and C truck means three axles powered.

In addition, the FA/FB iuses a 1500/1600 hp V12 engine, while the PA/PB used a 2,000 hp V16 engine.
The A means a cab unit, while B is a cabless booster unit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALCO_FA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALCO_PA

The ALCO Century series came too late in the 1960s to save ALCO. It could not compete with GE's Universal series, which earned the nickname U-boats, that started with the UB series.

Last ALCO C636 - mentions the big 3 steam locomotive manufacturers, ALCO (Schenectady, NY), Baldwin (Philadelphia, PA) and Lima (Lima, OH). ALCO was the main survivor of the big 3 steam locomotive manufacturers. Baldwin and Lima eventually merged with Hamilton as the locomotive industry transitioned from steam to diesel electric. ALCO was the number 2 manufacturer of diesel locomotives until one of its suppliers (of generators and traction motors), GE, decided to get into the business and quickly become number 2, while ALCO dropped to number 3, before going out of business in 1969. ALCO designs and manufacturing were transferred to an affiliate, Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW). A major problem for ALCO was the use of less-expensive aluminum wiring rather than more expensive copper wiring, which lead to problems with connectors due to the difference in thermal expansion of Al and Cu or Cu-alloy connectors. The aluminum wiring exposed to air would oxidize over time, which resulted in more resistance and high temperatures in connections, which lead to fires on the locomotives.

Unique C855 - Engines of Union Pacific Episode 5, ALCo Century 855