The "Trains" (= Kalmbach) Locomotive Annual for 2015 (which reached my usual rail fan shop last week) has a cover picture of and an article on the Florida East Coast's new and brightly coloured ES44C4 locomotives…
Which reminded me that the ES44C4 isn't GE's FIRST proposal for an A1A-A1A. I have seen a drawing of a proposed but never-built A1A-A1A GE-Ingersol-Rand boxcar from the 1930s. As I recall, it would have used the larger, 800 hp, version of the IR six-cylnder engine (the version used in one Erie boxcar switcher and one 2-D-2 experimental built for the New York Central), and it was for passenger service: I assume the idler axles allowed for the weight of a steam generator.
I don't know if GE pitched this idea to the F.E.C. in particular, but I think it would have been ideal for the Key West Extension. FEC was an oil-burning railroad (Florida doesn't seem all THAT far from the coal mines of Appalachia, so they may have adopted oil-fired steam locomotives at least partly for smoke abatement), and I can't imagine that the Keys (small islands surround by salt water,with a sizeable town on Key West) had a superfluity of fresh water, so the Key West Extension would (hurricanes and bankruptcy aside) have been a good place to introduce road-service diesels!
(So, if some modeller wants to scratch-build an elongated version of the GE-IR oxcab and paint it in FEC colours…)
Which reminded me that the ES44C4 isn't GE's FIRST proposal for an A1A-A1A. I have seen a drawing of a proposed but never-built A1A-A1A GE-Ingersol-Rand boxcar from the 1930s. As I recall, it would have used the larger, 800 hp, version of the IR six-cylnder engine (the version used in one Erie boxcar switcher and one 2-D-2 experimental built for the New York Central), and it was for passenger service: I assume the idler axles allowed for the weight of a steam generator.
I don't know if GE pitched this idea to the F.E.C. in particular, but I think it would have been ideal for the Key West Extension. FEC was an oil-burning railroad (Florida doesn't seem all THAT far from the coal mines of Appalachia, so they may have adopted oil-fired steam locomotives at least partly for smoke abatement), and I can't imagine that the Keys (small islands surround by salt water,with a sizeable town on Key West) had a superfluity of fresh water, so the Key West Extension would (hurricanes and bankruptcy aside) have been a good place to introduce road-service diesels!
(So, if some modeller wants to scratch-build an elongated version of the GE-IR oxcab and paint it in FEC colours…)
