Was this 40 years ago at Cumberland Shops, our Geep ready once again to grind up Sand Patch on a coal train? Or Wyoming, Mich., where it might go back to hauling automobile frames to Detroit?
As a matter of fact, it was just last week, October 13, inside the repair shop of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum. There, I caught up with B&O No. 3802, better known as “the all-American diesel,” as the plaque on its frame says.
The 3802 is a great memorial to Dave. His nearly five decades as a staffer for both Trains and Classic Trains magazines cemented his reputation as the nation’s leading diesel locomotive writer.
Retiring Trains Editor David P. Morgan said it himself when, in the July 1987 issue, he announced Ingles’ promotion to editor-in-chief. “I would wager that Ingles could, given a bare room, desk, chair, blank tablet, and ballpoint pen, list 80 to 85 per cent of [U.S. diesels] by road, colors, model, series, and builder. In, say, 36 hours,” Morgan wrote. “He is, then, the living contradiction of those who declared that the end of steam would be the end of our avocation.”
In his own matter-of-fact way, Dave boiled down his criteria to a few simple conclusions. What made the B&O GP38 typical? Certainly, the railroad itself made a difference. In 1981, the B&O was approximately dead center among what were then the “Big 12” Class I railroads. With its 5,208 route-miles B&O was close to the national average of 5,104. Its roster of 975 locomotives was similar to the U.S. average of 800 units. The median age of diesels was more difficult to discern, but Dave determined that the 15-year-old 3802 — built in 1967 — again fit the bill.
Beyond that, the 3802 had other common attributes: 2,000 horsepower, 16-cylinder prime mover, two-axle trucks, a low nose, dynamic brakes, and Electro-Motive lineage (in 1982, 85 percent of the U.S. fleet was EMD!). The only outlier J.D.I. cited was the fact the 3802 was heavier than the usual GP38, reflective of its use in coal trains, plus the fact it had a larger 3,600-gallon fuel tank.
J.D.I. obviously agreed. He concluded his 1982 story with a bit of wry advice: “Keep an eye out for 3802 — it’s so typical it’s easy to miss.”
You won’t miss it at the B&O museum. The engine sparkles in its early 1970s Chessie paint, which it received afresh in 2008, paid for in part by that year’s annual $10,000 Trains Preservation Award. Since then the 3802 has seen regular use hauling museum passenger trains, switching equipment around the property, and participating in the annual “Diesel Days” in August.
“We recently replaced all the fuel injectors in it,” says Dwayne McCoy, superintendent of operations. “Other than that, it’s been a nice-running locomotive for us.”
That plaque on the 3802’s frame doesn’t credit J.D.I. for the locomotive’s all-American status, it simply names Trains magazine as the designator. And I’m sure that was fine with Dave. He wasn’t particularly interested in getting credit for himself. Throughout his 49 years on the staffs of Trains and Classic Trains, he was always all about the magazine.
But I knew what I was thinking as I headed for the museum’s shop door and took one more look at the 3802: “That’s J.D.I.’s diesel.”
Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!
Get the Classic Trains twice-monthly newsletter