Foreign Equipment On US Rails

[samfp1943]

DS4-4-1000

Additional foreign equipment that ran on US rails includes the FAUR Quarter Horse which demonstrated for sales in the US and wound up on the Washington Terminal.

Also, in the late 1960s the Flying Scotsman 4-6-2 made a US tour.  I saw it in 30th Street Station in Philly. (wasn't there an earlier tour by an English steam lovomotive in the US?)

Not to forget the French Turbos Amtrak ran, I am not talking about the Rohr copies which were produced later but lasted much longer.

There was an English built industrial switcher used in Ohio. I cannot remember the specifics other than the photographer was amazed that the cab was paneled with polished hardwood.

If we look north we can include the Hunslett switchers in the Vancouver Area, The English Electric locomotives on the CN Montreal commuter network, and the Werkspoor TEE locomotives on the ONR Northlander. 

Others I missed?

 

 

  Just as a matter of curiosity...            Anyone have any info on what happened to the (apparent)  11 Russian  TEM7A Switchers (D-D trucked) that arrived in Houston area in Spring of 1993?

 The story was that they were sent in payment for a grain shipment from America to Russia.  On arrival in Texas, The US Customs had them impounded, variously, I've heard they were not compliant with American standards ( crashworthyness, EPA, etc. ) Do not know 'rea'l story on that.  They were never released to run in US, and sat in Houston Port area ever since?

  I am wondering if they are still there or as some mentioned, scrapped there?  Found some photo links and to TRAINS Forum Threads @

http://www.pbase.com/lynnh/russian_tem7a_engines

http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/t/211583.aspx?page=2#2322414

http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/741/t/94901.aspx

The photos of the 11 TEM7A's are on the site Rail Pictures, and as I think about them; They were brought over during a time when Barter was being used for goods between the USA and Russia, as there was some problem with the currencies at that time....It was also within that same time frame, there was a story that the Pepsi-Cola Co.,  had wound up with some Russian Submarines, as payment was bartered for them as well... IIRC, I think that Pepsi had them scrapped, to gain their value?  [My guess is that Cocoa Cola was relieved?]

 

[M636C]

Another example of Barter, but earlier than the Russian examples, was a set of 300 iron ore gondolas that were shipped to Port Hedland, Western Australia from Romania in payment for iron ore.

This was I think, just prior to 1990 and the fall of the Ceaucescu (?) regime in Romania. Around 70 of the wagons had entered service with what became BHP Billiton when the Federal Government discovered that no import duties had been paid on the wagons.

Apparently it was too difficult to do anything about the operating vehicles, but the remaining 230 were locked up in a fenced off yard just east of the main line to the south. They sat there until 2008 or so, so maybe 20 years. They were eventually scrapped to make room for an accommodation village during the Mining Construction boom that ended a couple of years ago.

Since these were gondolas for rotary dumping, they looked pretty much identical to all the others with only very minor changes from the locally built cars.

Even the cars that entered service are pretty much gone, having been replaced by newer higher capacity cars.

M636C

[alloboard]

Very interesting. Thanks allot for sharing the photos of the Russian locomotives.

[M636C]

While on the subject of Romania, during the communist era a small roadswitcher spent some time working at Washington Union Station. It was built by the 23rd August Works, their model LDH-125. It was fitted with an in-line six cylinder LDA 28, as used in many British locomotives. It was known as the "Quarter Horse" in the USA. Like the Russian locomotives there was nothing in its favour and it just faded from sight. it was listed in either The Second Diesel Spotter's Guide or one of the updates.

M636C

[Deggesty]

Quoting Samfp1943: " [My guess is that Cocoa Cola was relieved?]"

I never had any carbonated cocoa; I wonder how it tastes.

[Overmod]

M636C

While on the subject of Romania, during the communist era a small roadswitcher spent some time working at Washington Union Station.

That's the same locomotive - FAUR was the industrial combine that produced and tried to market it.  Had that same Eastern European build quality made famous by the Yugo.  The Sulzer 6LDA28B probably made more than 186.5W output through the Voith transmission, but it was difficult to use much more than that because  70 tons on 4 axles made it slippery with few systems to mitigate the effects.  The principal trouble as I recall was chronic exhaust gas and hot oil stink in the cab, which was said to be a problem with this design used elsewhere.  One person who ran the thing on its demo tour said the locomotive leaked oil everywhere, "almost as badly as a Baldwin" (which is pretty bad indeed!)

Here's a picture of the locomotive painted for Washington Terminal service

It wound up serving a railroad-car repair facility in the old LV shop complex in Sayre, and was eventually scrapped there in the late '80s.