Rarest Motive Power

[coborn35]

What railroad do you think has (or had) the most interesting motive power?

I think that it would have to be the LTV Steel Mining Company. (operations ceased in 2002) They had Alcos:
RS11's, C420's, and C424's
7200 - wrecked
7201 Sold
7202 Sold
7203 - wrecked
7204 Sold - Morristown and Erie
7205 Sold-Watseka Farmers Grain Co. Co-op [Ill]
7206 Sold - Morristown and Erie
7207 Sold - Morristown and Erie
7208 Sold - Morristown and Erie 7209 Sold - Gerenal Railroad Supply [lease group]
7210 Sold-Watseka Farmers Grain Co. Co-op[Ill]
7211 Sold - Morristown and Erie
7212 Sold - Morristown and Erie
7213 Sold - Morristown and Erie
7214 Sold - Morristown and Erie
7215 Sold - Morristown and Erie
7216Sold-Ed Bowers, Resold - M&E 7220Sold - Ohio Central
7221 Sold - Amsterdam Leasing
7222Sold - Ed Bowers 7230Sold - Ohio Central

They also had F9's and F9B's, most which are still for sale:
4210
4211 - Donated to LSRM
4214
4222-B
4223-B
4224-B
4225 -B

They also had the interesting BLW S12's :
7241Sold
7245Sold
7246Sold
Parts only

And the not so interesting GP20's and GP38's:
4206Sold
4207Sold
4208Sold
4209Sold 4201 To GE Financial
4202 To GE Financial
4203 To GE Financial
4204 To GE Financial
4215 - SOLD
4216 - SOLD

GO LTV!!!!

[Anonymous]

I think the Canadian Pacific had the most interesting motive power, back in the last days of the steam era.

Nothing beats a CP Hudson chugging down the tracks.

I was also a big fan of the Maroon stripe down the sides of the steamers.

[Anonymous]

If you mean the rarest locomotive, in steam I'd have to nominate Interstate Railroad's first #5. It was a 4-8-0, not all that rare a wheel arrangement, but this specimen had 50" drivers, slide valves and Southern valve gear. I'm certain it was the only 4-8-0 with that valve gear.

Diesels? Probably RI's EMD re-engined Alco DL109 passenger engine. Unless I'm mistaken, it was the only DL109 so equipped.

Old Timer

[tatans]

UP or SP GE U50's, only today are manufacturers getting up the brute size and strength of these behemoths,and they can't replicate the sound of these monsters, IF you like diesels.

[Anonymous]

UP owned locomotives like the M-1000, the makeen motor car, the big boy, & the
unique 4-12-2.

[Anonymous]

A really rare one I recently read about was NYC HS-1a Niagra #800. It used an Elesco multi-pressure boiler with 1300psi steam in a closed cycle which used steam to steam transfer(?) to generate 850psi. If I understand this right, the 850psi steam is fed to a single cylinder which exhausts into 2 lower pressure cylinders at 250psi. The loco was based on a German design and Canadian Pacific had a 2-10-4 of similar design.

[WSOR 3801]

The Milwaukee put a EMD F-unit cab on their DL-109s. And they built their own "motorcar" -- EMD 1200 hp engine, F-M A-1-A trucks, 85' carbody, and a "bulldog" nose. Unforunately, only the front truck was powered. It was basically half of an E9, the other interior space designed as a RPO/baggage compartment, but not used as such.

[chad thomas]

The SP had some real oddities in it's day.

The German Hydraulics.
The Sultzer powered U25Bs
The GE U50's
The EMD DD35B's
Homegrown slugs.
And lets not forget the tunnel motors. They had a lot of them in two models, but besides the DRGW they were unique to SP.
A narrow guage switcher on the Carson & Colorado line

[spbed]

How about the Baldwin sharks?

[spbed]

Maybe the UPRR gas turbines. Their were only about 40 built? [:o)]

QUOTE: Originally posted by coborn35

What railroad do you think has (or had) the most interesting motive power?

I think that it would have to be the LTV Steel Mining Company. (operations ceased in 2002) They had Alcos:
RS11's, C420's, and C424's
7200 - wrecked
7201 Sold
7202 Sold
7203 - wrecked
7204 Sold - Morristown and Erie
7205 Sold-Watseka Farmers Grain Co. Co-op [Ill]
7206 Sold - Morristown and Erie
7207 Sold - Morristown and Erie
7208 Sold - Morristown and Erie 7209 Sold - Gerenal Railroad Supply [lease group]
7210 Sold-Watseka Farmers Grain Co. Co-op[Ill]
7211 Sold - Morristown and Erie
7212 Sold - Morristown and Erie
7213 Sold - Morristown and Erie
7214 Sold - Morristown and Erie
7215 Sold - Morristown and Erie
7216Sold-Ed Bowers, Resold - M&E 7220Sold - Ohio Central
7221 Sold - Amsterdam Leasing
7222Sold - Ed Bowers 7230Sold - Ohio Central

They also had F9's and F9B's, most which are still for sale:
4210
4211 - Donated to LSRM
4214
4222-B
4223-B
4224-B
4225 -B

They also had the interesting BLW S12's :
7241Sold
7245Sold
7246Sold
Parts only

And the not so interesting GP20's and GP38's:
4206Sold
4207Sold
4208Sold
4209Sold 4201 To GE Financial
4202 To GE Financial
4203 To GE Financial
4204 To GE Financial
4215 - SOLD
4216 - SOLD

GO LTV!!!!

[Overmod]

Interesting and rare? How about GM&O? Can anybody say "Ingalls 4-S"?

WSOR, if you think an E with only one engine is interesting, how about a B-unit with a homemade cab and only one engine... Rock Island AB6.

Don't think you can call the HS-1a a "Niagara" (note sp.) as that name was only used for the big 6000s. If any other railroad used a 4-8-4 as a hump engine, I'd like to know who!

(In any case, Id like to suggest that we not consider one-off experimental locomotives "rare" in the sense this question is intended -- we'd have to find some way to 'equate' a K4 with Franklin RC valve gear with a 6-4-4-6 for 'rarity'.

There's some middle ground here: locomotives intended for 'mass production', but only built in 1 or a few examples: the PRR electric classes O1, R1, L6, and DD2 were all intended as locomotives for major production, but events dictated otherwise. This is a different situation from the E2/E3 experimentals or one-offs like the P5b.

[Anonymous]

North Pacific Coast built the first cab forward in 1902 from parts of a Baldwin 4-4-0.
It was oil fired and arguably the first oil fired locomotive. On the narrow gauge lines North of San Francisco it was known as "The Freak"

http://www.ironhorse129.com/Projects/Engines/NPC_21/NPC_No21.htm

[chad thomas]

Mabee it should be known as the "pioneer".
Very interesting loco.

[Anonymous]

The PRR had so many random variants of all sorts of locomotives from all manufacturers it seems the variety was endless. I vote for the PRR

[oltmannd]

For a small RR, how about the LIRR in the late 50s and early 60s.

They had FM CPA20-5s and CPA24-5s (2000 and 2400 HP C-liners with B-A1A wheel arrangement). They also had some H16-44s, too.

They had Alco RS1s, 2s and 3s and later, some high hood, steam genny C420s. They also had some Alco switches.

They had some Baldwin switchers, as well.

But not a single EMD!

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Adding to NPC 21's oddball status would be the fact that it also had a water-tube boiler, quite normal for stationary boilers but a bit unusual for a locomotive.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, my rarities would include C&IM 30-31, the only RS1325's built. We should also consider export designs (G8, G12, DL535, U8B, etc.) in service in the United States.

[Overmod]

QUOTE: Originally posted by CSSHEGEWISCH

We should also consider export designs (G8, G12, DL535, U8B, etc.) in service in the United States.

Strange you should mention this. Would a Baldwin RF615E qualify?... there's one coming to SMS in south NJ. Almost makes up for the loss of all the PRR BP-20s...

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Overmod

QUOTE: Originally posted by CSSHEGEWISCH

We should also consider export designs (G8, G12, DL535, U8B, etc.) in service in the United States.

Strange you should mention this. Would a Baldwin RF615E qualify?... there's one coming to SMS in south NJ. Almost makes up for the loss of all the PRR BP-20s...

An R615E would definitely qualify. It's Baldwin's design to compete with Alco's DL500 (the World Locomotive) and all of them were built for Argentina, 5'6" gauge, I believe.

[mudchicken]

Westinghouse sharknosed BlueGoose or SSLV's D-300 Critter (Will somebody save that thing?! - Still at Blanca rusting away!)

[Gluefinger]

What about CNW Crandall Cabs?

[METRO]

I gotta go with the CP running their C-Liners, Baldwins, Alcos (including some one-of-a-kind models) until fairly reciently.

As for American roads I gotta go with KATY's positively weird looking AS-16 and RS-3 hunchbacks. They were repowered by EMD and given the long hood of a first-generation Geep, but the Baldwins got an SW-style step down to become flush with the lower cab. Very weird, and also earning some scorn from me for destroying the beautiful industiral design of the RS-3!

~METRO

[GMS-AU]

This is more to do with odd locomotives but do Reading Lines SD45's (Class of 67, five only ) count? Having a tandem control stand, the cab was filled in the middle with the extra control stand. To increase space for the crew the cab front was extended about 6 " into the low short hood. Whatever happened to these, were their cabs rebuilt to standard or do any survive. I'm presuming they didn't survive Conrail. And EMD's GP59's with rounded standard cabs. They are now with CSX as part of a swap deal. What about other demo's, such as EMD's early SD45X 5740, rated to 4200 hp and as such had an extra cooling fan ( four in total to keep all those horses cool ) in the hood. ATSF's cabless SD45B's, I think there were two, the result of rebuilds after accidents, and now one has received a MK cab similar to the MK 5000's, which are also oddballs. BN 6599 SD45 for a while a test bed for a HTBB truck, it was a A1A-B+B trucked unit to see if 4 axle flexicoil trucks could be used for heavy haul. AC traction killed of any further development, but the idea came form Brazils metre gauged DDM45's. FL9's could be seen as rare or odd as having different bogies, two axle front and three axle rear, how many other diesels had this apart for the afore mentioned BN 6599. Another might be Alaska's GP 49's, the only ones of this model built. 5 or 6? ex Hammersly Iron ( Australia ) SD50's bought into the US after ending their duty in Australia's arid North West mineral province. These were built under license by Clyde Australia and as such have larger cooling intakes and a second skin on the roof as noticeable difference. Utah is running one in coal service along with the MK5000's. NRE imported these. Finally to get off the EMD product, the 4000 hp Alco that was run by CP but now resides in a museum. Didn't Trona run big Baldwins for a while?

If I have any of these details wrong, please feel free to correct me.

G M Simpson

[coborn35]

The Reading sounds really cool.