In the early days of road diesels, some railroads chose to buy sets of diesel locomotives with the same road number with different letter designations for each individual unit. The Western Pacific numbered units this way using 803-A, 803-B, 803-C, etc. The Santa Fe used the letter "L" for the lead unit (what we now call an "A" unit) followed by B and then C; for an A-B-A the numbers for locomotive set number 51 would be 51L, 51A, and 51B. 51L and 51B were both "A" units with cabs, and 51A was really a "B" unit.
According to Jim Boyd's book, Passenger Alcos, there was no name for the particular style until 1952; up until that time the model number always started with "DL" for Diesel Locomotive followed by a number. The DL109's are a good example of this. The first PA's were model DL304 and the PB was DL305. When the D&H bought PA's from the Santa Fe in 1967, they used them for their regular passenger trains on a daily basis. They also bought a New Haven PA for parts to keep the other units going. When Amtrak took over most passenger service in 1971, the D&H lost it's passenger trains until 1975 when service was restored with the PA's rebuilt and back in service. In 1977 Amtrak started using turbo trains on the D&H making the PA's surplus. For a while they were used by the MBTA in Boston, MA commuter service, before going to Mexico. The two units that came back to the US have no trucks, no diesels, and even the old stainless steel sides have been removed. According to Steamtown, replacement trucks will be fashioned from FM trucks that are a little different in wheel base, but very similar otherwise. The Denver and Rio Grande Western did use a PB as a steam generator for their passenger train but it had no diesel engines inside, and only looked like a "B" unit. Some of the 6-wheel trucks were replaced with 4-wheel trucks, so the appearance really changed. One of these may still exist. The Canadian National bought many FPA's and FPB's for passenger service. These are slightly longer than conventional FA's and FB's, and have 4-wheel trucks, but many of them still exist and are in service. One group is used by the Grand Canyon Railway between Williams AZ and the Canyon and includes both "A" and "B" units. They still have the original Alco diesel engines in them. The Paulista Railway in Brazil had 3 PA's but they were for 5'-3" track gauge instead of the 4'-8 1/2" gauge of the others. One of these is in a museum. One or two of the Mexican PA's are in a museum, and the two brought back to the US are to be restored. Other than these, they were all scrapped. Chris Harding S-Trains list sponsor: http://www.americanflyertrains.com All the Flyer you desire...books and accessories too! To UNSUBSCRIBE from this list send a note to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
