ACL’s second passenger diesel
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad No. 501, the line’s second passenger diesel locomotive, stands for a builder’s photo at the Electro-Motive plant in 1939. Built as an E3, it was upgraded to E6 specifications. It survives today at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer.
Classic Trains collection
Classic Trains collection
Dual-service Pacific
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad 4-6-2 Pacific-type steam locomotive No. 429 was one of 45 class P-3 engines built by Baldwin Locomotive Works between 1914 and 1916. Its 69-inch drivers made it suitable for both freight and passenger service. ACL used Pacifics extensively on freight trains.
Classic Trains collection
Classic Trains collection
Glamorous freight diesels
An artist’s rendering done to promote the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad’s new fleet of express refrigerator cars shows a string of them drawn by an A-B set of Electro-Motive FT diesel locomotives, framed by a palm tree and admired by a trio of beachgoers. ACL No. 529 was an E7; the road’s FTs were numbered 300 to 323.
Atlantic Coast Line
Atlantic Coast Line
Passenger F units
Two Atlantic Coast Line Railroad FP7 diesel locomotives ease into the station at Wilmington, North Carolina, to pick up train No. 42 to Rocky Mount in August 1957. ACL’s fleet of 44 FP7s was second only to the Louisville & Nashville Railroad’s 45.
William D. Middleton
William D. Middleton
ACL1000
The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad was an early adopter of six-motor diesel locomotives for road freight service. ACL No. 1000 was the first of 24 Electro-Motive SD35 built in 1963–64.
Electro-Motive
Electro-Motive
Last word in ACL Pacifics
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad No. 1652 was one of 165 class P-5-B 4-6-2 Pacific-type steam locomotives the road acquired from Baldwin Locomotive Works between 1922 and 1926. The dual-service P-5-Bs were the last and most numerous of ACL Pacifics.
Classic Trains collection
Classic Trains collection
Six-motor Alcos
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Nos. 2000 and 2001 are from the road’s 1963 order to Alco for 11 C628 diesel locomotives for mainline freight service.
Atlantic Coast Line
Atlantic Coast Line
Spiffy switch engine
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad 0-8-0 steam locomotive No. 7031 was rebuilt from an Atlanta, Birmingham & Coast 4-6-0. The engine shows that ACL’s high maintenance standards extended even to lowly switch engines.
Atlantic Coast Line
Atlantic Coast Line
Secondhand Twelve-Wheeler
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad 4-8-0 No. 7034 may have the road’s big emblem on its tender and fancy trim on its cylinders, but its ancestry is clear: it’s a former Norfolk & Western Railway engine, acquired by ACL from the Highpoint, Thomasville & Denton Railroad.
Classic Trains collection
Classic Trains collection
Secondhand Ten-Wheeler
4-6-0 steam locomotive No. 7112, a 1907 Baldwin Locomotive Works product, came to the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad from the Atlanta, Birmingham & Coast Railroad; ACL gained control of AB&C in 1926 and absorbed it in 1945.
Atlantic Coast Line
Atlantic Coast Line
Classic Trains editors are celebrating the heritage, history, and lore of famed (and infamous) railroads. In November 2019, we celebrate the Atlantic Coast Line.
Please enjoy a collection of locomotive images located in the David P. Morgan Library archives at Kalmbach Media that include ACL’s iconic locomotives and scarce builder’s photos.
You might also enjoy this ACL history article from Classic Trains, and a photo gallery of Atlantic Coast Line passenger trains.
ACL Parents and I rode ACL from Jacksonville,FL to Lake Alfred, where we had to get off one train and on another at 4 am.Easy transfer just walk from one to other parked side by side. Our ultimate destination was Punta Gorda where my aunt lived. On the return, we had a combo baggage/passenger car from PG to Lake Alfred and it was about midnight this time to move from one to the other and back to Jville. I loved their purple engines had never seen any with that colors.