Top Ten Extinct American Electric Locomotives
Thanks very much – most interesting!
I must admit that I was surprised by the choice of the CUT 3 kV DC locomotive for the #1 position. Upon reflection though, it was significant beyond its own sphere of application, in that it introduced the 2-C+C-2 wheel arrangement to American practice, which type of running gear then became the norm for high-speed locomotives. Stability enhancing devices were added to later iterations, but the basic cast steel truck configuration, which had its origins in the GN Y-1 1-C+C-1 locomotive, was retained.
I think that I would have picked the GN W-1 over the VGN EL-2B. They were designed in parallel, perhaps with the W-1 concept determined first. Evidently the VGN did not much like it, hence the EL-2B. Judging by what was said in the ASME paper on the pair, the W-1 was the more difficult design proposition, the EL-2B being a simpler locomotive.
The PRR E3b was the marker for a paradigm shift, and maybe as such would warrant a place in the top ten. As initially ordered, it was an AC locomotive, using Westinghouse’ latest resistance lead motors, and effectively the realization of one model in WH’s earlier proposal for a standard range of electric locomotives (primarily AC, but with a DC option) all using the same B-truck with non-lifting lateral motion. Early on it was changed to the ignitron rectifier type, following successful the trial of this technology in EMU equipment. The E2c was something of a sidebar, apparently included as a backup because the PRR had reservations about the three-truck layout of the E3b. Nonetheless, the E2c appears to have been the first American domestic locomotive, electric or diesel, to have been fitted with lateral motion C-trucks, earlier installations being of the rigid-bolster type.
It would be hard to justify more than an honorable mention for the PRR E2b, but it was a heroic effort to get the most out of the conventional 25 Hz single-phase motor and in a relatively simple standard locomotive, GE by that time wanting to move away from the complexities represented by the W-1 and EL-2B. (It had also planned motor-generator and DC versions of the E2b, but as far as I can find, no details of these proposals ever emerged.)
Cheers,
