วีดีโอ

Muchas gracias por compartir!

i had the exact same problem. ridiculous.

Albany-Troy New York had a commuter line that rand every 30 minutes. Albany NY-Saratoga NY was a commuter line known for overcrowding all the way till the end. European countries still have nation wide commuter rail.

11:00 Derailments because of water sloshing in steam generator tanks? I guess that’s the difference between an engineer and a train driver. FFS. . . marine guy would know about free surface fluid effects

I remember Alco PAs at Ottawa’s Union Station. Wow. Late 70s? Early 80s?

You need to do the C855

My grandfather Bill Morrow was an expert machine tool builder and mechanic & worked for them in Beloit, Wsc. during WW II. I remember him telling me about rebuilding both diesel engines in the locomotives and sub engines? Funny but he got fired several times and rehired because he knew more than the Management which they didn't like. He could tear anything down and rebuild it? Thanks!

Without decent freight operations, industry in New England closed down or scaled back. Many headed south to cheaper labor and better railroads. Of course the interstate highway system helped truckers and severely impaired the railroads in the NE. Also the industrial plants in New England were old, outdated and worn out from WWII. Once 'Made in the USA' was replaced by Japan and eventually China, roads like the NYNH&H were doomed.

NOT THE WINDOWS 7... looool

Looks like a nice runner. I'd not heard of True Line. Thankully it had a standard Atlas mechanism in it. I'd hate to try to find out of print parts for a small bespoke operation. Heck finding parts for older Atlas, Kato, and Bachmann stuff is difficult, lol.

251's were *extremely* prevalent here. The 6 cyl straight inline version is ultra-reliable and used in NSW 48 and SA 830 class. The 12 cyl v-config version was used in lots of locos here. Still to this day. A fair number of NSW 44 and SA 930 class still run, as do a fair number of NSW 80 class, 442 class, and at least one SA 700 class. Also some NSW 45 class (and a couple of the SA 600's) used the 251. Some of the US style C630/C636's were used in the Pilbara iron ore operations but not sure if they were new build or locos dumped from rail operators in the USA. My worksite often has an Alco V12 based 80 class as a shunt unit, and plenty of the 6 cyl inline locos (which are 50 to 60 years old now) being only 80 tonne axle load get used to service some rural lines that cannot take heavy 20+ tonne axle load units.

how did you take the shell off ???

All ALCo's for the most part, blows anything GE's is and was produced. Most ALCo's are still pulling their weight today something GE can't make that claim, GE's are mainly junk lol lol lol and lol lol lol

Where I live commuter lines are non existent and we will always need cars, while there are buses, theu suck. I will be using a car the rest of my life

If you remove light board will be easier to separate the frame .

Toujours langue étrangère STOP TH-cam

As a railroad historian and participant as a stem engineer, fireman and brakeman on tourist and Polish passenger trains running with steam, I really appreciate the thoroughness of your work and using accurate photos.

Dezmoinez, Iowa? Seriously, dude?

2nd time watching this video. I have a new respect for the F units. In HO scale railroading, the F-7A was the most over produced model ever. I guess it followed the success just like the real units. I have quite a few HO scale F-7A engines and 1 F-7B. Love those old F-7's. Cheers from eastern TN

A little bit 'o trivia and information here: To address North American railroading: First off, the title "Rail Foreman" as mentioned in the video is incorrect. The traditional proper title name would be "Road Foreman of Engines" or nicknamed "Traveling Engineer." He worked up through the ranks from fireman to engineer then into management as a foreman. The road foreman of engines was the supervisor of the locomotive crew (not the train crew. The "Trainmaster" was their boss). The enginemen, (the engineer and the student apprentice/fireman). In the 90's on the Class 1 railroad where I was employed the title was "updated" to "Manager of Operating Practices." The actual movement of trains or engines fell under the operating department of the railroad. The titles of railroad men traditionally were a bit "elusive", so in the 1990's the railroads decided to make those titles a little more transparent to the outside [customers] world and began dropping the traditional title names. Oh and heaven forbid a title with gender identity such as "switchman or brakeman. " well the "man" was changed to "person because more women were being introduced into the work force. As for the locomotive engineer, the title "Engineer" remained, but "engineman" was officially discontinued (but still used among crews themselves). The title "Fireman" was used even deep into the diesel era under union agreements. Eventually "Fireman" was replaced with "Student Apprentice" or just "Student" who was assigned during his training to become an engineer under a peer locomotive engineer as well as being engaged in exhaustive classroom study of operating rules and practices. Furthermore, tradition in railroading when it came to "titles" of job positions was almost set in stone so to speak until white collar CEO's came into the railroad business from the outside world and who were no longer career railroad men (who had railroading in the blood beginning at age 18) and who worked up the ladder from the bottom up to President of the railroad. In contrast to our European friends, the BL2 was found to be the "ugly" duckling born from EMD. Thank goodness on the Class 1 where I served my career there were none.

By watching your videos, it's became apparent that the main problem with the ALCo's company's locomotive's was it's lack of sufficiently educated engineers. The ALCo company's management system looks like it wasn't sufficient in it's changing out it's engineers until it found the sweet spot of technology it needed to survive the environment ALCo's locomotive's was trying to endure in. The ALCo's seemed to be up to par, they just lacked the technology needed leaning towards it's wrongly appointed management . . .

You have a great series. Thanks for all the hard work.

I found that you can actually replace the bachmann motor with a life like motor which has much more longer lasting parts

Wonderful video. Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. Dave

Excellent documentary, Peter! Can't help but wonder what Alco would have been had they not cut basically ALL corners on the 244. I wonder if the limitations placed on them by the war department during WWII played part in that rush.

Really interesting, love the classic footage! Thumbs up as always! ✔

THE BL2 WAS ORIGINALLY DESIGNED TO HAVE AN BRIDGE TYPE MAINFRAME AS DID THE F AND E SERIES LOCOMOTIVES! ALL OTHER LOCOMOTIVES ARE BUILT WITH AN FLAT PLATFORM FRAME WITH ROADSWITCHERS! THE PINCHING IN OF THE BRIDGE FRAME, GREATLY REDUCING REQUISITE WORK SPACE AREA! ALTOGETHER , BL2 MEANS , “ BUTT UGLY AND VERY CROWDED!!” I AM QUITE GLAD, SANTA FE HAD NONE OF THESE ABORTIONS!!! KEEP THEM ROLLING BROTHERS!! 👍👍

probably could have fixed this from the beginning by adding more mount points to the block.

Still mispronouncing Ingersoll Rand. Ing ur soll Rand.

Union Pacific calls their SD40-3 rebuilds SD40N and uses pairs of them in local service around their regional hubs

Have ridden the MRS-1's on the Heber Valley Railroad in Utah who pinch hit for the Steam units when they are going through their inspections... Also the Tooele Army Depot at Hill AFB in Ogden, Utah have several in their stores.

ALCO, the company that just couldn't see the future...

Strikes me as I listen and cross reference to other research, that 244 while a problem child, hauled a LOT of freight all the way into the 1960's. Begs the question did they ever "stabilize" the design? Obviously the 251 was a relatively successful successor in terms of design, although didn't stop the bleeding. Strikes me the more than just the 244 design was the cause of ALCO's demise

Stopped watching as soon as you said steam loks took a long time to steam up. Those that were in active service were kept at the ready, had a fire going but just below boiling. Steam loks fresh from repair took a while to steam up. And for that matter a lot of railroads let their diesels idle so that could be ready at a moments notice. And no, I’m not a steam bigot. Just want the facts to be correct.

Is the santa fe dash 8 the same or is the fuel tank different

5:42 This is an SW10. While based off older EMD switchers, SW10 was built in the mid-1970s by Union Pacific for its own use, not by EMD

Got any more information for the 539T inline 8 engine? That would have provided around 1350hp competing directly with the early 567 V16 versions. I've also heard alco could have pushed the 539T a bit harder by the early 50s and gotten closer to 1200HP out of the I6 or 1600hp out of the I8.

52:08 that thing is CURSED

Happy new 2025 alco guy.doing mu favorite engine with the worst engines in history. Butt alot of them are still earning their keep.

A few comments. I understand Alco went to mechanically-driven auxiliary systems in the later DL109’s to control costs. The New Haven used the DL109’s nighttime freight service and more of these units might have been purchases if available. John Kirkland wrote several books on early diesels and opined that the 241 engine’s shortcomings could have been corrected in a normal development program but Alco decided to go with the unproven 244 to allow a single diesel singing to compete with EMD’s twin-engine E units. I recall reading that some features of the 241’s found their way into the 251’s. The videos showing crankshaft forging are interesting and come from the Jam Handy film on 1936 Chevrolets called “Master Hands.”

you say that there are 636's still being used in australia. i dont think so. i dont know how many are left. there is one sitting quietly in the railway museum in perth, western australia.

enjoyed. cost cutting as explained has been the end of many companies. if anyone is interested, alcos are still running in australia. the nswgr 48 class is the star of many australian youtube train videos.

Great info.. keep it coming.

Love your layout

Omg maybe just talk about the pa and not all talking about steam engines and shorten your video.

The SAL bought about 180 RS-3's numbered 1100 thru 1200 series. The 1105,a 6 axle model,had wheel slip problems due to the weight not being distributed evenly on the trucks.

For the record yes, there was at least one Gold Bonnet Santa Fe PA1 in real life in 1960 as a General Electric publicity stunt. Just Google "gold alco PA1" to find at least one photo of the prototype.

I have never seen anyone untie that type of ribbon. Nice gift. Merry Christmas.

That’s a nice unit. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Merry Christmas everyone! Glad you like it, Peter! I was prepared for a long drug out search process to find something appropriate but when that popped up it was a no-brainer. I'm glad it runs as a Kato should. this paint scheme did exist in real life on ATSF 53 but not for very long. From the research that I was able to find less than a year and closer to 6 months along with a few matching cars and toured the west toast of California as a GE promotion.