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California's Locomotives Alco and GE Short line and industrial Diesels Strapac
California's Locomotives Alco and GE Short line and industrial Diesels by Joseph A. Strapac
Softcover 144 pages
Copyright 2012
Contents
1.Introduction
2.Alco Switchers, S-1 and S-3
3.Alco Switchers, S-2 and S-4
4.Alco Switchers, S-6 and T-6
5.Alco Road Units
6.General Electric Industrial Units, 25 Ton through 45-50 Ton
7.General Electric 44 Ton Units
8.General Electric 70 Ton Units
9.General Electric 65-80 Ton and Custom Units (Including Narrow Gauge)
10.General Electric Road Units
Introduction
Driving northeast on Interstate-15 from Victorville toward Barstow, the freeway passes under a railroad overpass, but, as every rail enthusiast knows, the joint BNSF-UP main line lies several miles to the west. Neither road has a branch in this neighborhood. If "railfan luck" holds, a train might appear on this anonymous track-powered, perhaps, by an SDP40 or some equally improbable locomotive and trailing a motley collection of aged hoppers and gondolas. This vision is not a mirage; in fact, we visited these same rails in the steam volume, when dinky 0-6-0 saddle-tank locomotives did all the work and the rail line was known informally as the Mojave Northern. Now the Victorville arm of Mexican construction giant Cemex, the steam-powered shortline has morphed into a modern, efficient plant railroad.
Likewise, the Ventura County over on the coast at Oxnard. Evolving from its quiet days of hauling sugar beets and Navy Construction Battalion traffic, today's VC is operated by Rail America. Still a shortline, "just as wide, but not as long," today's VC nurtures its service monopoly at Port Hueneme and a brisk trade in inbound, imported Mazda and Volvo automobiles.
Railroading has changed. Along with the major railroads, the small operators have been forced into new business plans and new technology. The typical California shortline of 1940 was seriously undercapitalized, "getting by" with equipment cast off by the Class I roads. A decade of hard times left most of California's shortline and industrial railroad operators on the brink of bankruptcy; the costs of operating a small railroad with steam locomotives threatened their survival. Four years of World War II put off the real confrontation, but even California's post-war building boom could not save steam operation-or even many of the railroads themselves; some, like the Yosemite Valley, were simply doomed.
The beginning of this great change took place in the late 1930s and early 1940s-when rail operators (large and small) realized that more productive locomotives were essential for their survival. In California, switching and terminal lines were the only small roads that could afford to buy the production-model diesel locomotives available in this era-they had the immediate need, access to financing and had already invested in heavier rail. The Alameda Belt, State Belt and Los Angeles Junction were pre-war customers for 660 horsepower or 1000 horsepower Alco switchers. The Los Angeles Junction Railway led the way, purchasing S-2 switchers #1-2 in February 1941. The Alameda Belt Line followed with two S-1 units, #D-1 and D-2, in February 1942. Then in July 1943, the State Belt took delivery of S-2 locomotives #2021, followed by #22-23 in March 1944 and #24-25 in July 1945. These locomotives constituted the "first production-line generation" of California shortline diesels.
A second generation would have to wait for the end of World War II and relaxation of government restrictions on locomotive production. From the diesel locomotive sales standpoint in 1945, California rail lines fit into one of two categories: (1) those that could accommodate 100-ton or larger diesels and (2) those that could not. The key to locomotive
sales breaking into the second category would be the World War II-era development of lightweight diesel engines for trucks, tanks, landing boats, etc.
Once the war was over, the defense-related diesel engine industry was looking for new worlds to conquer. The market for new steam locomotives was dead, but locomotive builders other than the "big three" made the shift in order to compete in the sub-100 ton locomotive market. They did not manufacture their own diesel engines or electric gear, purchasing diesel engines from many suppliers and electrical gear from GE or Westinghouse. Prominent among them were Davenport-Besler Corp., Davenport, Iowa; General Electric Co., Erie, Pennsylvania; Plymouth Locomotive Works, Plymouth, Ohio; H. K. Porter Co., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Vulcan Iron Works, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; and the Whitcomb Locomotive Co., Rochelle, Illinois (a Baldwin subsidiary).
GE quickly assumed dominance in this market, initially offering the modernized 44-ton model that dated from 1940. In 1946, GE introduced its first post-war diesel locomotive design, aimed specifically at the shortline market: the 70-ton, 600 horsepower "road switcher." Market research had established that many potential customer rail operators could not use a locomotive weighing 100 tons or more, because their rail and bridges would not accept that much locomotive weight. (Many are the tales of diesel demonstrator locomotives "going on the ground" due to light rail or rotted ties.)
The relatively lightweight turbocharged Cooper-Bessemer FWL-6T six-cylinder inline diesel engine produced as much horsepower as the non-turbo model 539 Alco engine, but without the weight penalty of its obsolete design. Additionally, the GE Erie Works was set up to weld and flame-cut steel and could produce every part of a locomotive without resorting to large iron castings-even the trucks were fabricated from thick steel plate. With a lightweight diesel engine and an all-welded structure, GE could offer a small road locomotive at a low price that could operate on 50-pound rail at 20-30 miles per hour.
The seventy-ton locomotive made no sense over at Electro-Motive, because that factory was going full-blast two shifts per day, producing F-units to dieselize the Class I roads just as rapidly as possible. On the other hand, there were few modern steam locomotives working on small rail lines in California and those that had just gone through a war-time traffic boom were worn out. The market was ready, especially since the General Electric locomotive salesman came knocking not only with a product, but with an attractive financing deal as well.
Meanwhile, GE's smaller 44-ton diesel immediately picked up sales momentum once the war was over. The pitch made to shortline management by diesel sales representatives was that their product reduced overhead and at the same time was more productive than a steam locomotive. One diesel unit often replaced two or three steam locomotives. However, a locomotive (even a diesel) operating on a common carrier needed a two-man crew if it weighed more than 90,000.
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