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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by kevinstheRRman You know why you like them? BECAUSE you don't own ONE! and that goes for everyone, even all you ALCO smootching fans. You never owned an ALCO, the RR you worked for did. So when it continuously broke down, that was NO money out of your pocket was it? THE RR paid for the repairs. Now let's jsut say ALCO came back from the dead, and bought out Ford and Started reapplying cheap parts, or shoty wiring, or whatever the problems were, and you just bought a brand new FORD-ALCO Mustang. HEY NOT BAD! it looks good, it wasn't that expensive, and all the chicks are digging it. Then it starts CONTINUOUSLY BREAKING DOWN. even after you spend more then the ORIGINAL VEHICULE IS WORTH, would you still be saying.. oh look this is the beauty, and it works so well.. NO? then why are you saying that about an ALCO? put that shoe on your foot, pretend you bought an entire Fleet of ALCO PAS and they kept breaking down, you would be madder then wildfire, and don't Bull S^&^ me and tell me that you wouldn't be... If looks really counted in life, i'd have 3 Girlfriends, no joke. BUT THEY DON'T! Behind a "good looking" alco, is a rusted out pile of scrap that is likely to break down within the next five minutes! [/quote] KevMacMan [8D] Alco was like every other locomotive manufacturer. It produced some good products, it produced some bad ones. The 244 engine was not a good product. The 251 was a good engine. Because the 244 was not so good many railroads who had Alcos either traded the Alcos in on other new locos or reengined the Alco with an EMD engine. Some of these railroads never gave Alco another chance. Someone in another thread made a statement that railroads have a long memory. The Century line that Alco produced (C420, C424 and C425) was an excellent line of locomotives. You can find them TODAY still running. The railroads that maintained them according to the book had great success and found them to be reliable, dependable, and excellent pullers. Railroads who owned only a few Alcos didn't maintain them as they maintained the EMDs or GEs. If you overlook necessary maintaince you are just asking for trouble. Do the same thing with the EMDs or GEs and see what happens. Now how many 35 to 40 year old GEs do you see running today. Noone wants the early GEs. You see or hear about very few of them being rebuild. Now THERE is your rust bucket. Now let's have some facts about Alco that you may not realize. Yes, Jim is getting out the ol soapbox. Here are a few comments reguarding the 251 engine as compared to the EMD GP-35 and the GE U25B: (Note--all boasted 2500 horsepower.) Alco's 251 engine delievered more horsepower per gallon of fuel used, because of its higher thermal efficiency. The 251 required standard railroad lubricants. The 251 had a tried and proved track record. The C425's parasitic load was less which gave it better operational efficiency. Now as has been said before, railroads have a long memory. The major buyers of Alco products in the 1960 were eastern railroads, Southern Pacific, and upper midwestern railroads. The Century line is now reguarded as an excellent line of locomotives. However, Alcos production numbers as compared to EMD and GE were much, much lower. During the 1960 fuel was cheap. Now look at the price of fuel. My father bought a new Ford Custom in 1965, gas was about 17.9 to 19.9 a gallon then. Now who can remember the gas lines of 1973? How much was fuel then? Had Alco survived the fuel issue would have been a hugh incentive for the railroads to consider. Unfortunately Alco shut the doors January 1969. Alco was a leader in AC locomotive technology. Alco also ran in the early horsepower race. Each manufacturer took turn jumping in front of the other until DC technology could no long substain the horsepower levels (around 2800 horsepower). Alco was a leader in high adhesion trucks. So you see many of the standard and overlooked items related to locomotives of today can be traced back to Alco. Oh, by the way, didn't you say something bad about the electronics in the Alcos? Alco, bought their electrical items from an outside vendor. I won't tell you which one. I will let you find this out on your own. It won't be hard to do. Alco made some mighty fine steam locomotives. They also made some fine diesel ones too.
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