STATIONARY POWER PLANTS using Alco diesels

[Alcoman]

We covered the 251's well, how about a current list of539's and 244's or even 538's?

[greenus90]

BOTH crawlers are power by alcos- somewhere on the net there are pictures

[mxdata]

John and friends, I just wanted to make you aware that there is a book that shows some of the old larger ALCO M&S engines. It is:

DIESEL ENGINES
By J. W. Anderson
McGraw Hill Book Company - 1935
First edition

It is probably available occasionally on eBay or through book sellers. ALCO must have been a generous contributor because their engines are shown in the railroad, marine, and stationary sections. Included in that are some pictures of the big stationary engines which have many of the design features of the 538 but are much larger and constructed on enormous base castings. The book has many pictures and lots of cross section drawings of early diesels from a number of builders.

[SSW9389]

Welded frame is the 540 engine used by the U S Navy.

Hartford (CT) Hospital had, up to about 15 years ago, a welded-frame 539-- I think it was Navy surplus and may have been designated a 540 engine. It was the usual in-line six, used to power a standby genset.

[mxdata]

A lot of research and phone calling finally seems to be resulting in some discoveries. I have been advised that there is an intact ALCO-Sulzer engine still sitting in a building, the 1930s vintage engine was decommissioned more than three decades ago, and is secure and has not been vandalized. I have talked with the officials of the organization that owns it, and they seemed receptive to a visit. It is a considerable distance away, so when I can arrange to go and take a look at it I will post a report if it appears worthwhile to do so. I do not want to subject cooperative hosts to a string of requests for special visits, so for now I am not going to provide any location information.

[krobar]

What a shame if that 16-244 was scrapped. Did anybody think to contact the Smith and Doyle McCormack? Since he will eventually restore the other PA for the Smith it would have been a perfect match to bring that primemover together with that loco. I was also surprised to see the number of 18cyl. 251's on that list.

[EDM5970]

The Phila Gear 16-244 auction was likely five years ago. We looked at it, and informed the Smithsonian about it. They had no interest or money at the time. Doyle is committed to using a 12-251, which I believe is in his unit now.

The 16-244 was supposed to go to the Todd Engine Foundation (?) in the Midwest (?), but I don't know if if ever happened.

[mxdata]

An equipment dealer in central NJ had the 16-244 Philly Gear engine for a while and had it listed for sale. I put them in touch with the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania because the large indoor hall there had adequate room between some of the tracks to display it, but nothing came of it. I have not heard anything more of what happened to it.

It would be nice if historically significant equipment could be saved, but when you look at the large amount of equipment presently rotting in outside storage at museums that do not have the money to preserve the items or the space to get them under a roof, the future does not look encouraging.

[Alcoman]

I am compiling a list of companies that used Alco 330,538, 539 and 244 engines for non- railroad uses. I am amazed how many "539" engines the navy used - 67 so far and 54 "540" engines. They even used 23 "330" engines.