New GE Electrics for Mexico

The problem with cleaning out old stuff from the basement is getting bogged down looking through every book and magazine which is about to be recycled! Maybe somebody will enjoy seeing this GE ad for new electric locos for Mexico - from the January 1925 National Geographic!

Note the running gear in the small inset picture of the electric locomotive: B-B-B.
I don't think GE used this arrangement very often, but clearly it was in their bag of tricks.
This relates to one of the more mysterious stories in early diesel locomotive history. At the end of the 1920s, at about the same time as the first Tri-Power locomotive and the Harlem Division 2-D-2 experimentals, it was announced that the New York Central would get a "heavy" 600 hp switcher-- I think I've seen that it was being considered for West Albany Hill pusher service-- with B-B-B running gear. Alco as prime contractor, GE for the electricals, diesel engine by NELSECO (which was somehow related to the submarine builder Electric Boat). NELSECO realized that their engine wasn't really suitable for a locomotive application and pulled out, and the project was dropped: I have never been able to find out more about it, or any picture of what it would have looked like. For the moment, I guess I'd guess it would have looked sort of like these electrics below the deck, with maybe a carbody similar to the Harlem Devision experimentals.

Those FC Mexicano locomotives appear to have been the first build anywhere of the single-frame triple-truck type, otherwise known as triple-bogie or tribo. The trucks were articulated, so that the wheel arrangement was B+B+B. Also, above the trucks was a pair of long equalizing beams, to help keep the truck loads more0or-less equal when traversing vertical curves. This arrangement was described in GE patent US1160715 of 1915 November 16.

In general though, subsequent tribo locomotives did not have such equalization equipment. Rather they often relied upon long-travel secondary springs to minimize weight transfer.

GE did build some tribo diesel-electric models in the early 1950s, namely a C+B+C road switcher for Guatemala and Colombia, and a C-2-C double-cab unit for Indonesia.


Cheers,

That ad made me go and take a look at my own 1/1925 NGM... one of the many neat things about that magazine is it was a treasure trove of great railroad advertisements (and occasional articles too), especially before the 1950s.

BR&P - if you're looking to thin the yellow-bordered collection, and if it's not too late, PM me.

Here is a diagram of the FCM B+B+B locomotive, along with an excerpt from the patent showing the equalization arrangement.




Cheers,