New Haven Railroad locomotives

4-6-2 steam locomotive No. 1341

New Haven had 138 Pacifics in four classes, with the first I-1’s arriving in 1907, the same year its final 4-4-2s and 4-6-0s were delivered. Engine 1341, backing onto the turntable at Waterbury, Conn., in the 1940s, is from a batch of 50 I-2’s built by Alco’s Brooks plant in 1913. Six I-3’s also arrived that year, followed by 50 I-4’s from Schenectady in 1916.

Kent W. Cochrane

1-B+B-1 electric locomotive No. 075

New Haven’s 100-plus EF-1 locomotives, built beginning in 1910, were the backbone of the road’s electric freight operations. NH routinely used four of the 1,600 h.p. Baldwin-Westinghouse 1-B+B-1 motors on freights through World War II. No. 075 stands inside NH’s electric shop at Van Nest, N.Y., in 1948.

Kent W. Cochrane

Alco C425 2550 and U25Bs 2502 and 2504 diesel locomotives

A consist of three New Haven second generation road-switchers idles at Maybrook, N.Y., in June 1965. Leading is Alco C425 2550 (one of NH’s 10) with GE U25Bs 2502 and 2504 (NH had 26) behind.

Louis A. Marre collection

4-8-2 steam locomotive No. 3558

At Hopewell Junction, N.Y., Mountain type 3558 readies itself for its next helper assignment east on the Maybrook Line in August 1950. New Haven bought 70 4-8-2s between 1919 and 1928, all for freight service. The 49 members of the R-1, R-1-a, and R-1-b classes were of USRA (light) design. The 13 R-3 and R-3-a Mountains built by Schenectady in 1926 and ’28 had McClellon boilers with watertube fireboxes and three cylinders. They received conventional boilers in 1929 but retained their three-cylinder drive until the last of them were retired in 1951.

John V. Weber

Fairbanks-Morse H16-44 No. 1610

Black-and-vermillion H16-44 1610 stands outside the Fairbanks-Morse plant in Beloit, Wis., in 1956. NH’s 15 dual-service H16s were among FM’s last locomotives.

Fairbanks-Morse

Three classes of passenger motors

Passenger electric locomotives of three classes stand on the ready tracks at New Haven, Conn., in September 1955. From left: EP-2 No. 325 (wheel arrangement 1-C-1+1-C-1, built by Baldwin-Westinghouse in 1927); EP-4 No. 364 (2-C+C-2, General Electric, 1938); and EP-3 No. 352 (2-C+C-2, GE, 1931). Like the rest of NH’s passenger fleet, all three had pantographs for the road’s A.C. catenary as well as shoes for the D.C. third rail into Grand Central Terminal.

Jim Shaughnessy

Alco-GE FA and FB diesel locomotives

Wearing its original orange livery, Alco FA1 0422 idles with FB1 0455 and FA1 0410, the latter two in the newer green scheme, at Maybrook, N.Y., in the early 1950s. NH had 30 FA1s, 15 FB1s, and 5 FB2s.

Wallace W. Abbey

2-10-2 steam locomotive No. 3208

New Haven rostered 50 Santa Fe types, all of class L-1 built by Schenectady in 1918. Counterbalancing problems with their 63-inch drivers restricted them to 25 mph, so they worked primarily on the heavily graded Maybrook freight line, not the bustling Shore Line. Engine 3208 is at Waterbury, Conn., in the 1940s.

Kent W. Cochrane

Fairbanks-Morse CPA24-5 No. 795 and Alco-GE PA1 No. 0784

Polished green-and-yellow Fairbanks-Morse CPA24-5 No. 795 and Alco-GE PA1 No. 0784 await their next passenger runs. Until the early 1950s, NH diesels and electrics carried numbers beginning with “0.”

J. W. Swanberg collection

2-C+C-2 electric locomotive No. 0154

In 1942-43 New Haven received 10 2-C+C-2 streamlined freight motors, five EF-3a’s from GE, and five EF-3b’s from Westinghouse. Rated at 4,860 h.p. each, they were by far NH’s most powerful single-unit locomotives of any type. As freight units, they were not equipped to run on third rail into Grand Central. After delivery, the EF-3b’s were fitted with steam boilers and other equipment, enabling them to take passenger trains into Penn Station. In this 1940s view, EF-3b 0154 departs Cedar Hill Yard with a westbound freight.

E. R. Meaker

EMD FL9 diesel locomotive 2014 and GE EP-5 electric locomotive 378

New Haven, Conn., circa 1960: EMD FL9 dual-mode (diesel and electric) 2014 and a sister move in the engine terminal as GE EP-5 electric 378 backs head-end cars toward a westbound train waiting in the station. NH’s 60 FL9s were built in 1957 and ’60; some lasted on Metro-North’s ex-NH lines until the 2000s. The 10 EP-5s of 1955 barely lasted into the 1970s. Both types with unique to the New Haven. Note the slightly different arrangements of the white-black-red “McGinnis” colors on the two units.

Jim Shaughnessy

New Haven diesel, steam, and electric power

Posing for a publicity photo at New Haven in the 1940s are, from left: one of NH’s 60 Alco-GE DL109 diesel units (built 1942–45), one of the road’s 10 I-5 Hudsons (Baldwin, 1937), and an EP-4 passenger electric.

New Haven Railroad