Alcos Out West

We all know that the Northeast has become a haven for Alcos of all types, age, and condition. But there seems to be very little info on any Alcos out west. Does anyone have any clues as to what is "out there?"

Well, it's not "out west", but the Minnesota Commercial is a well-known home of Alcos. For a roster as of 2004 click on http://www.mnnr.org/prototype/roster/, but several of the smaller Alcos have left since then - see http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=156306. Andy Inserra's really the guy to talk to about MNNR Alcos though, he's taken pictures of them for years and ran the U of M Railroad Club. Oh, and the U owns their own S4 switcher as well.

Other Alco roads in the upper Midwest include the Iowa Interstate (http://www.shortlinesusa.com/Iais202_copy.jpg) and the Minnesota, Dakota and Western (http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=185495, a log hauler in International Falls, MN) but I don't where else there are Alcos out this way.

Hi,

To my knowledge there are no Alco's left in "normal operation" in the far west. There might be a switcher or two, but I don't know of them. There are several museums that operate their Alco's on an occasional basis; the list is on my Museums page:

http://www.calclassic.com/alco/museums.htm

Hope this helps,

The Apache Ry is all Alco. The Napa Valley Wine Train and Grand Canyon Ry use FPA-4s. That's about it west of the A&M in service, except for museums.

RS

Iowa Interstate no longer has any Alcos. The last of those(M420) were sold to Southern RR of NJ.
Don't forget Burlington Jct Ry. In addition to the 3 C415's, they have a S-3 and recently purchased 2 MLW S-13's.(not yet on property)
John

tgibson wrote:Hi,

To my knowledge there are no Alco's left in "normal operation" in the far west. There might be a switcher or two, but I don't know of them. There are several museums that operate their Alco's on an occasional basis; the list is on my Museums page:

http://www.calclassic.com/alco/museums.htm

Hope this helps,

For your page, I have a correction to make.

For the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum, you have the LV 211 (RS3m) and Eastman Kodak 9 (RS-1) listed as static displays. The fact is both engine are actually part of the museum's operating fleet and are used for museum events along with NKP 79 (S4).

Don't get too excited about that LV 211. An Alco carbody, hiding an EMD prime mover, hardly qualifies as an Alco. I personally know of an offer, to repower that Alco, with a 244 from a donor unit, but they wan't to keep it EMD, for whatever bizarre reason..........

GOLDEN-ARM wrote:Don't get too excited about that LV 211. An Alco carbody, hiding an EMD prime mover, hardly qualifies as an Alco. I personally know of an offer, to repower that Alco, with a 244 from a donor unit, but they wan't to keep it EMD, for whatever bizarre reason..........

Probably for historic reasons, it has been operating more than half of its life now with an EMD engine..
built 1953, EMD engine in 1979.
1953-1979 = 26 years.
1979-2007 = 28 years.

and, today its not a RS3, its a RS3m, and being a RS3m, its supposed to have an EMD engine! in that respect, its historically accurate right now.

and.."if it aint broke, dont fix it"..I cant speak for the museum, but IMO they would probably prefer it stay a reliable, operating engine, rather than go through the expense and difficulty of re-engine-ing it for no obvious benefit, other than "historical accuracy"...and..it could be argued the unit is already historically accurate with its EMD engine in place!

I consider it an Alco..
to me it will always be LV Alco RS3 211.
the type of engine under the hood doesnt matter much to me.
I would still consider it a "real" Alco even it was on static display with NO engine under the hood!

Scot

I don't know if this qualifies, but Okanagan Valley Railway (Reporting mark: OKAN) still rosters an MLW M-420w #3550 ex CN 3550. Its owned by Omnitrax but still painted in CN zebra stripes. I got a couple pix of it in operation last summer. OKAN is based in Vernon, BC.

Hi,

Thanks, I updated the R&GV entry.

Take care,

GOLDEN-ARM wrote:Don't get too excited about that LV 211. An Alco carbody, hiding an EMD prime mover, hardly qualifies as an Alco. I personally know of an offer, to repower that Alco, with a 244 from a donor unit, but they wan't to keep it EMD, for whatever bizarre reason..........

I am well aware that its got a 12-567B under the hood. A couple of weekends back, we were working on its generator. I'd like to see it back in its original state (with a 244, etc) but I am sure there is a good reason that our museum has kept it as is.

scottychaos wrote: "historical accuracy". I consider it an Alco..
to me it will always be LV Alco RS3 211.
the type of engine under the hood doesnt matter much to me.
I would still consider it a "real" Alco even it was on static display with NO engine under the hood!

Scot

Yeah, why would a museum be concerned with historical accuracy? Or a preservation society? Oooops, I thought that was the only reason for a museum. Putting a dress on a pig doesn't make it a woman, know what I mean? It would be okay, as a Conrail loco, but it doesn't cut it, as a Valley loco. The EMD prime mover makes it an EMD, not an Alco. The loco is an Alco, because an Alco beats under the hood, not the "chanting" of an EMD prime mover. The thump-thump-thump would be accurate to hear. It's GREAT that it has been preserved, but it's not an Alco. Would a "steam engine" with a diesel in the tender, powering traction motors underneath it, still be a steam engine? (hope I didn't give any "museums" an idea there...... ) Just my opine, though........

GOLDEN-ARM wrote:Putting a dress on a pig doesn't make it a woman, know what I mean?

If you're in Arkansas, it does

(apologies to those from Arkansas)

Anyway. I'd forgotten about the White Pass and Yukon, they have some MLW RS-35s up there.

Those would be RSD-35's.
There are a small number of Alco switchers in Washington state, and at least one MRS-1 based out of Royall City.

Well, out in Campo at the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum, we have three Alcos... one RS-2 (needs engine rebuild), RSX-4 Operable but not completed,
and the ex-SP RS-32 which I have not yet done a full evaluation on.

Cut and paste
http://lirr.thermomods.com/index.php/topic,545.0.html
There is also a downloadable file showing the RSX-4 2104 running on 4-28-07. It is in Quicktime" format

http://lirr.thermomods.com/index.php?ac ... attach=119