Railroad Forums 

  • FPD-7 (DL500 Export)

  • All about locomotive rebuilders, small locomotive works, and experimental works
All about locomotive rebuilders, small locomotive works, and experimental works

Moderator: Komachi

 #227291  by Engineer James
 
Well, I noticed on Paintshop on Railfan.net, that there was a loco made by MLW (Montreal Loco Works). It is pretty much a 6 axle F3, with a REAR end cab, just like the SP cab forwards, of the 50's. Any one got pics??
Last edited by Engineer James on Thu Mar 23, 2006 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
 #227669  by Komachi
 
James...

There's this wonderful meta search engine known as GOOGLE, which allows you to search the internet for a wide variety of subjects...

For instance, a search for "FPD-7 locomotive" turned up a number of results...

http://alcoworld.railfan.net/export.htm

That link will take you to a page on Rolf Stumpf's ALCoWorld website, in particular, a page to ALCo./MLW's "export" locomotives, and locomotives built under license by other foreign companies, such as Australia's A. E. Goodwin (later ConEng (Commonwealth Engineering)). If you scroll down the list of items, looking in the second column (neatly marked "Model #"), you will come to the FPD-7 designation for the DL500CI/CP...

The DL500 being the "world class" locomotive built by ALCo./MLW for foreign markets, which you can find many pictures of online... in fact, Rolf has many on the ALCoWorld site, if you look in the pictures for the ALCo. locomotives from around the world. Do a search on GOOGLE for the DL500 and you'll find a whole bunch of pics for it.

As for the DL500CI/CP...

Referring back to Rolf's guide of "export" locomotives, the farthest column is noted as "notes," and we see that the CI/CP was built with a 251B engine for the Pakistani and Indian railroads (with the "I" indicating India and the "P" indicating Pakistan).

With that, you could do a search for the DL500CI/CP or even "Pakistan India Alco locomotive" and probably come up with search results for pics of the Pakistani DL500s.


However, staying on Rolf's site...

From the homepage you can scroll down and click on the little flattened globe that has the "country list" next to it. That will take you to this page...

http://alcoworld.railfan.net/country.htm

Which has an entry for Asia... both India and Pakistan included.


INDIA has a listing for the "WDM1 class DL500C, Broad Gauge," which takes us here...

http://alcoworld.railfan.net/ind_wdm1.htm


PAKISTAN takes you directly to a page about the DL500s there...

http://alcoworld.railfan.net/pakistan.htm


All found on the internet in about 5 minutes or less by using GOOGLE and a little detective work.


Now, technically, this question belongs in the ALCo. forum, however, I don't know off-hand if they were built by ALCo. or MLW and exported to Pakistan, or built in India by DLW (Diesel Locomotive Works) and then shipped across the border to Pakistan. If it was the latter, then, yes, it qualifes as a "smaller locomotive works."

Think I'll look in my copy of "American Locomotive Works: A Centennial Rememberance" by Richard T. Steinbrenner and see what they say about that.


Oh, and James... the F3 was an EMD product. The DL500 looks like a modified FA or PA on a six axle platform, with a control cab on the rear.


Now...

I'm not saying this to pick on you, but it's one of my major annoyances on the internet (and it occours on other online forums and chat rooms I frequent), so I'm going to direct this to the broader audience... there are people who don't research things before they inquire about things, or they blatantly request pictures, film clips, etc.. It's a real quick way to win friends and influence people.

I, do my detective work, with the limited resources I have available to me here in my rural hometown (population of 1,400 people), I scour the internet, talk to knowledgable people in my neck of the woods, search the internet and inquire about railroad related things here on rr.net, as well as a couple other railroad forums.

Works wonders, believe me. Sometimes it takes a few minutes, sometimes a few hours, days, weeks, etc. before you find the info. you're looking for.


Now, that being said, you've raised my curriosity about these locomotives as well. I'm going to read Steinbrenner's book and also ask the question as to how many are still in service in either India or Pakistan? Rolf's site says that there were a few still in service in India performing switching (shunting) duties on the North Eastern Railway and pulling sugar cane trains (although, it is also noted that given their age and state of disrepair, they're prime candidates for being retired from service). Are they still in service in Pakistan? (Rolf's site, again, notes that as of '99 they were still chugging along on the Bostan - Quetta line.) Just currious.

 #227687  by Engineer James
 
I Googled it, and It said nothing came up except the Paintshop page... Sorry, if I am an annoyance. :(
 #227935  by Komachi
 
Engineer James wrote...

"I Googled it, and It said nothing came up except the Paintshop page... Sorry, if I am an annoyance. :("


James...

You're not an annoyance. Let me re-emphasize that...

YOU ARE NOT AN ANNOYANCE!!!!!!!

I just used your post as an example of how to do a search for information such as what you were requesting. My apologies if it sounded like I was attacking you directly. I know there are some people here who tend to get on your case about your requests and questions, but you have the unfortunate circumstance of coming to our community here on the 'net after a few other younger members raised the ire of the group.


That being said, since you're relatively new to the "club" let me say that Rolf's ALCoWorld website it one of the best resources (if not THE best resource) out there for ALCo. related stuff. If it concerns ALCo. locomotives, he pretty much has it there. Take a peek and see what he has there, you'll be surpised at the amount of information he has compiled.

 #247356  by Alcoman
 
There will be a book coming out next year on Export Locomotives built by ALCO and BBD/MLW. Mr. Steinbrenner will be the publisher.