Bud, The discussion about ALCO motive power reminds me: Back in the days in Minnesota, plenty of roads had ALCO switching units: S-1, S-1, RS-1, RS-2, RS-3, but almost no roads in the Upper Midwest had any ALCO road units. Well, the Rock Island had some FA-1 in three-unit A-B-A sets, and way out West the GN had some four-unit sets of FA units, but they never got as far east as Minnesota. And the SOO LINE had four ALCO FA-1 units in A-A formation. When the SOO needed a booster, it simply took a GP-7 and placed it between the two ALCO units.
The most regretable part of the story is that no railroad operating in the Upper Midwest had any PA units. Wouldn't it have looked neat to have seen C&NW PA units hauling the "400" or Milwaukee Road PAs on the "Twin Cities Hiawatha"? My father-in-law who worked as an engineer on the Milwaukee between Minineapolis and LaCrosse, Wisconsin, regaled me with stories about the two ALCO DL-series passenger units used on the "Hiawatha". He hated the things, said they were not up to the two EMD E-6 units the Milwaukee had, so I guess that's the reason the Milwaukee turned to EMD E units for most of its passenger power. Oh, and how about two silver PA units on the "Twin Cities Zephyr"? I guess AF had the Q in mind when the company turned out silver PA units with the broad red no-real-road emblem on the nose, sort of looked like Q insignia but no cigar. Tom ________________________________________ From: [email protected] [[email protected]] on behalf of Bud Rindfleisch [[email protected]] Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2012 8:44 AM To: [email protected] Subject: {S-Scale List} Re: Simulated Prototype String --- In [email protected], "scale S only" <scalesonly@...> wrote: > > Hi Bud -- > > While I have a lot of friends who were and are in the real railroad > business, the closest I got to these locos was a tour through the ALCo > Schenectady plant while they were building the last of the Century 630s > (1967). An interesting tour given by a friend who was on ALCo’s > engineering design team (I think he took credit for that wallowing Hi-Ad > truck), the place was a shadow of what it must have been at one time. The > GE plant next door was even worse... That fellow was a true nut â€" he used > an ALCo diesel piston for a pillow on his bed. Bill, Wow, a piston for a pillow???? He must've had a real "cylinder head" (Sorry I couldn't help myself!) Bud R. ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
