Greetings all,I'm trying to get service location information on some NYC Alco HH600 switchers.
From my understanding there were eleven (11) HH600s delivered to the NYC in '38/'39:
I seem to recollect hearing or reading that switchers #674-#679 were primarily used at the Buffalo Central Terminal yard. Were any used anywhere else on the NYC during their tenure? If so, where?
I posted an inquiry on the NYC Yahoo! Group website but it quickly got buried with other discussions and probably will go unanswered. I'd check my NYC references but they are all packed up in boxes and 3 hrs away. So...I thought I'd post here with the hopes that I might get a few nibbles.
Thanks for any input.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Good to see you back, Tom! I saw your avitar in the "Users Online" pane yesterday and thought it was a glitch!
I don't have the answer to your query off-hand but I'll see what I can do to dig something up in the near future. I do have one photo showing the 800 and 801 (former 614 and 615) and a third one I can not make out the number on still working in Buffalo on August 18, 1962.
Take care, Ed
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
One question. Why the height? At first glance, I thought I was looking at a Fairbanks-Morse product.
Slightly . The trackage in the last photo Bear posted is the perfect prototype for secondary trackage on a road skirting the edges of bankruptcy. (One good prototype photo is worth a magazineful of modeling detail articles.)
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with low-hood diesel-hydraulics)
Ed & Bear,
Thanks for the replies and the links. Forgot about eBay being a good "temporary" source of prototype pics - i.e. while they're posted for auction.
I'm primarily interested in the service of the NYC HH600s prior to the '48 renumbering, which - according to pg. 3 (pg. 36) of the link that Bear provided - seems to coincide with the B&A being absorbed into the NYC(?) I have an Atlas "undecorated" that I'd like to eventually paint and letter with the pre-'48 Roman "New York Central" lettering (like the one pictured in my OP) but I wanted to know if these were used anywhere other than the Buffalo yard.
Being a proto-lance modeler - while I don't model a specific place or region on the NYC, I do want it to be "plausible" and as prototypically accurate as I can make it.
Again, I appreciate the helpful links and comments, gents.
Interesting. I just read in the NMRA data sheet link that the NYC HH600s were actually HH660s. I'll have to investigate that claim further. I'll also have to see if I can fabricate that unique headlight visor found on the NYC units.
Here's some additional data for you, Tom:
The specs show 660 HP for the "prime mover" but 600 for traction. Some horsepower is lost to the auxiliary generator and air compressor.
Note that the B&A units were equipped with buffer plates and air signal lines as these were intended to be used for switching passenger equipment in and around South Station.
That looks like an interurban type air whistle mounted just above the sander jet above the front cab window.
Ed
Ed,
Thanks for above info. I recoginze the page being from the "New York Central System Diesel Locomotives" by William Edson. Great book and one of the ones that's currently boxed up back in Cleveland.
Correct, Tom
...and co-authored by Lanz Vail whom I had the pleasure of knowing for many years back in the 1970s and '80s. He was a walking encyclopedia on all things NYC and I could listen to his stories for hours. Another one of the "old timers" who is sorely missed.
I think I told you that I knew Lansing and his wife from church. Wish I had been into the NYC when I knew him. Would have loved to have heard those stories.
tomikawaTT One question. Why the height? At first glance, I thought I was looking at a Fairbanks-Morse product. Slightly . The trackage in the last photo Bear posted is the perfect prototype for secondary trackage on a road skirting the edges of bankruptcy. (One good prototype photo is worth a magazineful of modeling detail articles.) Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with low-hood diesel-hydraulics)
There's a nice book out that covers the Alco high hood production, called Alco's HH Series from Withers Publishing (I think it's out of print - I found a copy at he Strasburg Train Shop a few years ago). The HH models had a solid base plate witht he motor and generator sitting on top, making them need the high hood. The later S-1 and S-2 models had the prime mover and generator mounted lower between frame rails, allowing for the lower hood.
The Withers book has some great pictures of HH models under constructions, it's like making a model loco by starting with e thick sheet of brass or styrene, then holes were made to route fuel and air lines, and the power cables for the traction motors. The diesel and generator and radaitor assemblies are bolted to one side, and the whole platform was set on the trucks. Outside of the vents and louvers (and of course the cab) they were pretty much motorized boxcars. The book also has a good section on the development of the distinctive Alco Blunt truck.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
It seems that photos of the locos in the time period you are interested in are your best best bet if they provide the location. Go to MD McCarter's website and download the catalog, look at NYC and see if he has a B&W photos of the locos in question. He usually provides the location and date.
I suspect if these locos were used at the passenger terminal, they might have also been used to push passenger trains up the hill like the steam switchers that proceeded them?
Victor A. Baird
Fort Wayne, Indiana