ALL:
Page 60 of the current "Classic Trains" has a photograph of one of three custom Fairbanks-Morse H12-44TS locomotives switching passenger cars at Dearborn Station, Chicago. What made these locomotives special? Did they have S-G's? Finally were all stationed in Chicago?
Ed Burns
NP Eddie ALL: Page 60 of the current "Classic Trains" has a photograph of one of three custom Fairbanks-Morse H12-44TS locomotives switching passenger cars at Dearborn Station, Chicago. What made these locomotives special? Did they have S-G's? Finally were all stationed in Chicago? Ed Burns
Yes, they had steam generators in a short hood.
Other H12-44 units lacked the short hood.
They looked similar to the larger H16-44 but had AAR Type A trucks, not AAR Type B road trucks.
I believe they all were stationed in Chicago.
Peter
The three H12-44TS's shared Dearborn Station duty with Santa Fe and C&WI RS1s. AT&SF did all of its own switching at Dearborn, C&WI handled everyone else. Their usual work area included Dearborn and AT&SF's Archer Avenue coach yard (mostly today's Chinatown). They lasted in service until Amtrak move servicing for the Super Chief/El Cap and Texas Chief to PRR's coach yard sometime late in 1971. They weren't really orphans since AT&SF also had several H12-44 switchers serving the Chicago area at the time.
Before someone asks, ATSF did its own switching at Dearborn since it was a tenant and CWI switched for itself and the owner roads.
H12-44TS 543 is at the Illinois Railway Museum. It seems they were leased by Amtrak until mid-1974, even after the Archer Avenue coach yard was closed.
Maybe just to clarify a little, they weren't the only diesel engines to have steam generators for use in passenger terminal switching, just the only ones of that particular make and model.
The H12-44TS actually ended up being longer than the H16-44.
They basically took an end cab unit and added a short hood on a longer frame.
I suspect that it would have been cheaper to buy an H16-44 if the design costs were properly allocated. Santa Fe had them too.
I think Washington Union Station had RS-1s as switchers, among others.
Not forgetting the Romanian LDH-125 which had a steam generator.....
M636CNot forgetting the Romanian LDH-125 which had a steam generator ...
That would be model 6LDA28B on a reasonably hot day...
Truth in advertising: "Quarter Horse" -- at the railhead on a wet day.
Just a further questions about passenger switchers. Did EMD-USA have any post war switchers with S/G's? I do know that EMC/EMD did have a few S/G road switchers for the Great Northern. Were the EMD-Canada road switchers have S/G's in their short ends? If I remember the ones built for the CP and CN had special trucks for light weight branch lines.
According to Wiki, the A1A GMD-1's didn't have steam generators but the B-B ones did.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMD_GMD1
The only postwar EMD switchers with a short hood were two RS1325's for the Chicago and Illinois Midland and they didn't have steam generators.
CN EMD/GMD GMD1's 1900-1917 were built with steam generators, but with their original 83 mph gearing they were intended for (and widely used) in road passenger and commuter service. Ditto for the FM/CLC H12-46's, which looked like the Santa Fe units but with A1A trucks. I believe some MLW RS-18's had steam generators too.
Some of the passenger GMD1's did end up as coach yard switchers later in life.
As far as I know CP did not have any true switchers equipped with steam generators, but a number of their GP9's and MLW RS-10's & RS-18's did have them.
CN had a large fleet of steam generator cars, CP did not have any. And by the late 1960's CP's only non-RDC passenger schedules were the Canadian and the Atlantic.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
As you surmised, CP had no switchers with steam generators, but did have quite a variety of road switchers. In all cases, only some of each model class were so equipped.
The first were the Alco-built RS-2, the BLW/CLC DRS-4-4-1000 and the GMD GP7. Their steam generators were removed very early. Lasting longer, in some cases until retirement, were the MLW RS-10, the GMD GP9 and the CLC H-16-44 and H-24-66. No RS-18 ever had a steam generator, although most had pass-through steam lines, as did the RS-3s.
CN favoured stand-alone steam generator cars. The GMD1s you mentioned and the H-12-46 trio were the main exception, Their lone H-24-66 also had a steam generator, a legacy of its quasi-demonstrator origin. But, CN's US operations (GT, GTW and CV) made a different choice and acquired a number of GP9s with steam generators and a pair of RS-3s. The latter two were soon reassigned to Canada. I think the pair of GTW RS-1s may also have been originally steam-equipped but am too lazy to look it up immediately. No CN RS-10s or RS-18s had steam generators.
I am aware of two other Canadian roads that had roadswitchers with steam generators. One is the Ontario Northland with several models,and the other is the Midland of Manitoba (the GN/NP in the Winnipeg area) and its single GP9.
John Sutherland
The GTW RS1's (last ones built for US service) were purchased for a proposed switch-your-own-trains scheme at Dearborn Station. As such, they probably had s/g's. When the proposal fell through and CWI continued switching for the owner roads, the RS1's turned up on the Jackson branch.
Thanks for the corrections and additional info John, going from memory I am usually rusty on detailed histories.
CN's steam generators made it possible for quite literally any locomotive to haul a passenger train, as demand required. Everything from a SW1200RS to SD40's ended up in this service at one time or another.
None of Northern Alberta's diesels had steam generators, so they leased them from CN. At some point as traffic declined during the 1960s the NAR switched back to solely using stoves for heating passenger equipment, and the steam generators ceased to be seen north of Edmonton.
At the Alberta Railway Museum we have a GTW GP9 which originally had a steam generator. A large block of concrete now sits in its place, and the unit was also renumbered from 4920 to 4520 when modified for freight service. However, it retains its torpedo tubes and long-hood forward configuration.
Agree.
Thanks to cx500 ( John Sutherland) for putting all this info into one 'to the point' spot. Great reference.
As an addenda, yes I have confirmed the two GTW RS-1s originally did have steam generators. And I completely forgot about the trio of GP18s, also on the GTW, that were so equipped. The "9" as the second digit in their number is the tipoff.
Keeping track of the details from 50 years back is a lot easier due to being alive back then! Just don't ask me for the same level of detail on the various types of SD70s or GEs.
John
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