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Introducing The Empress Canadian Pacific 2816 The Empress: Canadian Pacific President and CEO Rob Ritchie set the steam preservation world on its ear when in 1998 he revealed the railway’s plan to repatriate CP H1b Hudson No. 2816 from its long-time home at the National Park Service’s Steamtown museum and rebuild the 1930-vintage locomotive for […]
Alco C415 failure was not what the famed locomotive maker had in mind in the 1960s. At the time, Alco saw a need to revamp its switcher offerings and came up with the offset centercab configuration C415, which launched as a demonstrator in 1966. The arrangement separated the prime mover from the radiator on different […]
A Pere Marquette 1225 steam locomotive profile is long past due. Not only is it one of the most active mainline steam locomotives of the past 25 years it is also an iconic symbol of steam’s greatest technological leap forward: the development of Super Power technology, introduced in the 1920s by Lima Locomotive Works of […]
North American railroads never found a broad use for freight service diesel locomotives with a hydraulic drive, making them another case of the “diesels that didn’t.” Germany was the early leader in developing and building diesel locomotives that utilized direct-drive transmissions. Those early models in the 1930s incorporated torque converters and gears in lieu of […]
A lot happens between the horsepower output of a diesel engine and the drawbar where freight cars are coupled. A diesel engine’s raw output is known as brake horsepower, which is calculated without any additional equipment connected. After deducting those losses, the rest of the engine’s output is sent to the traction motors to pull […]
Mergers or acquisitions of two or more railroads always bring a blending of motive power rosters. Kansas City Southern, like all Class I railroads today, relies on its fleet of A.C. (alternating current) traction locomotives for most of its operations, similar to both Canadian National’s and Canadian Pacific’s motive power philosophies. Kansas City Southern’s grade-intensive […]
General Electric’s 4,400 hp C44-9Ws were, by far, the most popular D.C. traction locomotives the company every produced, with almost 3,600 copies built for North American customers. Sales began in the early 1990s just as A.C. traction was taking hold in the industry. Many railroads were still either wary of the new A.C. technology and […]
Locomotive builders use model designations to differentiate between products, describing major features found on them. Often, these model designations will be used by the railroads who purchase them, or they will be shortened or modified to conform to space limitations on a computer system, uniform naming schemes, or to identify features that are important to […]
Norfolk & Western C630 No. 1134 at Roanoke, Virginia. Rick Johnson C630 •YEARS BUILT: 1965-1969 •MANUFACTURERS: Alco, Montreal •OPERATED ON: Atlantic Coast Line, Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, Chesapeake & Ohio, Louisville & Nashville, Norfolk & Western, Pacific Great Eastern, Pennsylvania Railroad, Reading, Southern Pacific, others •NAMES: C630, M630 •QUANTITY: 133 •HORSEPOWER: 3,000 •KNOWN FOR: The […]
DDA40X Original DDA40X is on display in Omaha, Nebraska. Jim Wrinn DDA40X •YEARS BUILT: 1969-1971 •MANUFACTURER: EMD •OPERATED ON: Union Pacific (special order from UP) •NAME: Centennial, named to mark the 100th anniversary of the Golden Spike ceremony at Promontory Summit, Utah. •QUANTITY: 47 •HORSEPOWER: 6,600 •KNOWN FOR: The most successful of UP’s twin-engine freight […]
Metra No. 166 leads a train at Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 2011. Jim Wrinn F40PH-series •YEARS BUILT: 1976-1988 •MANUFACTURERS: Electro-Motive Division of General Motors, GMD of Canada •OPERATED ON: Amtrak, GO Transit, MBTA, Metra, Via Rail Canada •NAMES: F40PH, F40PHR, F40PH-2, F40PH-2M, F40PH-2C, F40PHM-2C; nicknames, Winnebago, Screamer, Thunder Box, Thunder Wagon •QUANTITY: 486 •HORSEPOWER: 3,000 •KNOWN […]
Lancaster & Chester GP38-2 type locomotives hauling a passenger train special. Jim Wrinn GP38/AC/-2 •YEARS BUILT: 1966-1986 •MANUFACTURER: EMD/GMD •OPERATED ON: Most North American Class I freight railroads •NAMES: GP38, GP38AC, GP38-2; nicknames: Geep, High Hood (for SR and N&W), Wide Nose (for CN) •QUANTITY: 3,231 (967 GP38, GP38AC), (2,264 GP38-2) •HORSEPOWER: 2,000 •KNOWN FOR: […]
