It's amazing for locomotives with such flawed engines and many of them are still in service after 70 years I guess I couldn't be that bad.

When I worked for Canadian National in the 1960's we were scrapping Fairbanks Morse units as fast as we could and the 244 engined MLW/ALCO's were next on the death row list, We also had RS-10's whuch were essentually RS-3s with the more modern looking high hood car bodies. MLW units had their prime movers built by Dominion Engineering and had much better quality controll. I now drive on a heritage railway which has two RS-3's and an RS-11. The problem we have been having with the 244 primemovers is that they have hard crome plated cylender bores with dimples to retain oil and cavitation in the cooling jackets causes pinholes to form in the inner liners causing coolant leaks into the cyleders. Since it is impossible to get new liners we have a welding shop make weld repairs on our failed liners.

Quite impressive that these ALCO Units are still running after all these years, but those were ALCO’s and there’s nothing like the sound of an ALCO Prime Mover when it’s accelerating. It just makes ya wonder if in 45+ years from now, will modern motive power used on the railroads today still be running. Excellent video. Thank you for posting and sharing 👍👍👍

I've always been curious about Alco diesels. Glad I found your channel.

NSW government railways here in Australia had 40 RSC-3's with co-co A1A bogies fitted. There is one still operating for the railway museum at Thirlmere.

I'm guessing by this time the company was being run by penny pinchers rather than engineers.

@dodge-ut6ti

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@Ferro Equus Amen to that.

@AndrewTheRocketCityRailfan4014

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Would make sense. Engineers would have been more passionate, patient, and smart about making the locomotives as reliable as possible.

@NE-Explorer

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I am an engineer and when I realized that money, and not technology, keeps the world spinning, then I became able to leave work after 8 hours and pursue good engineering on my own time for my own interests. I learned stuff that I could bring back into work, but only when necessary and always for hours.

EMD had the advantage of universal parts between units, and alco was completely starting from scratch. Never mind the fact GE walked by the late 50s ....still I love alco

I like the old Alco . The remind me of the old Utah Railway days. They hauled Coal from Carbon County. There are old colour videos converted from I believe old 88mm film. I've seen them on KZread. Good video.

The Long Island Railroad Had 2 ALCO RS-2 that they Purchased from D&H!!!!

I do like the RS-2's and have two of them, HO scale, of course. Just recently picked up a new RS-3 which I like even more. I think the Alco RS-3 is my favorite diesel engine. Thanks for the history on the RS-2. Those two Delaware-Lackawana's were RS-3's. Cheers from eastern TN

My favorite HO yard switcher engine made in Yugoslavia!

could yall imagine if Alco could have held out to the present? tier 4 c 800s? that would fun to kit bash! watching the b -w video of the factory workers, that looked very dangerous! ...OSHA would freak out and would have shut them down asap!

I liked the video and found it very informative and I love the sound of a good engine rumble like every railfan and model railroader but sometimes during the video the engine sounds overpowered what you're saying to the point I couldn't really understand and had to go back multiple times. I'd suggest you keep the background sounds there but regulate them so they dont blast over what you're saying, then in between paragraphs on your script (ex.: changing from engine talk to locomotive specs) you could let them run a little louder to act like a transition.

Don’t forget about the Nevada Northern rs2 105

I love Alco. We have some in Tunisia love their smoke and sound.

In Portugal there were 12 locomotives RS 2 (1501/1512) that arrived from 1948 and 5 locomotives RS 3 (1520/1525), that arrived in 1951. Gauge: 1668 mm The layout of the bogies was "A1A-A1A" due to the limited weight the bridges could support. There are still two or three for renovations on the lines.

The Nevada Northern Railway Museum has an original Kennecott RS-2 #105 that is still in active service.

I have a lot of fond memories of Alco’s and I preferred them to EMD’s one of the best things was “horsing them over” that’s throwing them in the opposite direction of travel and throttling them up it worked great switching, who needed brakes? It took a 1000 hp EMD to cover a 660 hp ALCO. EMD’s couldn’t be horsed just a big “wheel slip overload” light The C420 had a great top speed I had one up to 119 mph when I realized how fast I was going the fastest EMD was 106 mph after a twenty mile build up a 420 could do that in a mile or two. The other interesting thing was how they “ shifted gears” series, parallel, and parallel shunt. I was sorry to see them go…

Very informative video...thank you!!!

Maybe it's because of the Tri-ang switcher I have but I really like the shape of the RS2, it's iconic. When I got the Tri-ang model I had to find out if it was based on anything real and finally found out that it was, with some alterations of course. In true Tri-ang style at the time, it actually has EMD GP7 bogies (sacrilege!), but I can forgive it. Thanks for the video. I agree that is the quintessential shape, all streamlined and unclutered.

A period photograph that I picked up at the last York Show, for an entire $5.00, was a Lackawanna train being pulled by five RS’s. Love the look of the engine and that particular fallen flag. Your videos are great and I watch and rewatch them as I pick up different things every time I watch them. Wouldn’t mind a short video on how to tell the difference between each RS variant. I started to like real engines after playing with the “O” Gage ones.

Interesting the background info on the 244. Excellent video

I've got a nearby short line that runs Alco's and have found your presentation quite interesting.

Well done video and informative, I was wondering about the specs and the main differences between it and the RS3. Thank you!

Great video! :)

13:27 Hey man.... At least EMD's prime movers actually worked

Excellent information. This video (and channel) is Alco Power approved.

I do like how the RS2’s and 3’s look. They in a way somewhat resemble the general side shape of tank engines, which I find interesting and unique for an American diesel locomotive. Still though, wow do they have some dark stories thanks to those 244’s.

@alcobufff

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Yep! The 244 was a real rotten egg.

look at that tipping on the green mountain track

Despite their problems, RS units were good engines. I'm fortunate enough to see an even Rarer breed. An RSC2. It's still active (plus other 3), having been reengined with a 251 back in 1976. Here's a video: kzread.info/dash/bejne/lIppsNCCYKzPZ6w.html

As the railroads were going out of business especially in the passenger sector that put the car wash on buying new locomotives EMD could depend on backup by General Motors as well as General Electric was part of a great big company. Many railroads got many years of service from Alco locomotives as well as from Baldwin's and Fairbanks morse. The Milwaukee Road ran Fairbanks Morse switch locomotives till the 1980s because they did not have enough good credit to buy brand new switcher engines. Many engines were deliberately sabotaged by engine Crews because they hated Steam being replaced by diesel. I know in Erie crew that made it back to see how many cars and rs2 could pull before the traction Motors would catch fire. The answer is 108. If you blew up or put your diesel out of service then you got a steam engine and since you got paid by weight on drivers you made more money with the steam engine as opposed to diesel. If you neglect a locomotive and then you expected to run properly after it's been neglected you're being foolish. Most of the locomotives in Russia and India are descendants of World War II Alco locomotive set to help the war effort. Unfortunately there are many tax laws that promote the buying of new equipment rather than to rebuild the old equipment. The pet Central deep in debt was given credit by EMD to buy thousands of locomotives when it's track was falling apart. I hate to see perfectly good serviceable locomotive scrapped just for a tax write-off.

Illinois Railway Museum just picked up a L&N RS-2 or 3👍🏻

Watch a lot of RS2's roll by from 1955 to 1966 on the Erie Lacawana

Devil's advocate for the 244, it's a good engine at 2k HP or less

Such an incredible design ruined by rushing into production and lack of quality control. Unfortunately that is something that often haunts companies today. In fact I see it in the company I work for. Sales doing anything to land a contract regardless of us being able to actually implement it properly or not with the tools and staff we have. And the crappy part is that middle management knows exactly what's going on because lower management tells them all the time. They just turn a blind eye to it to maximize the bottom line and get bigger bonuses.

Have you done anything yet on the Indian or Australian Alco's?

I'm not sure if it's a 2 or a 3 but the Northern Nevada Railway Museum in Ely, NV. owns one.

Could you do a video on the C420?

I know the Pennsylvania railroad and Ohio and Baltimore railroad where some of the biggest customers for those locomotives and order a bunch of them across the states and there cordors as well for passenger and freight rail services as well

You can change ALCO's power plant with an engine of an GM would sound and run like one. Same with a Caterpillar Engine on an GM/ EMD locomotive.

the demands. on a diesel are very different...for revenue service. vs. weekend warrior...tourist duty!

that orange rs-3 got a seal out on the turbo i see some steam coming from the turbo

@alcobufff

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Actually, the steam is from the radiator relief exhaust pipe, located on the other side of the locomotive, near the diesel exhaust stack . It usually only puts out steam when it's really being pushed hard. In this case, It was because of sub zero temps.

@CoalChrome

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@@alcobufff so condensation?

The rs-3 was older?

The water cooled turbos iirc were usually better, at least in the rs-3s

539Ts weren't unreliable as far as I know, they were just not powerful

If Alco took their time in production and Quality Control, testing all their components they would have an outstanding product. Instead Alco knew they had problems in their Prime Movers, Camshafts and other parts by cutting corners, band aiding the the situation isn't facing the problem nor how money being made rushing the product into the market may lead to greed and not taking time to correct the problems with batteries, camshafts, turbocharger s, from cracking, breaking, due to improper manufacturing process, practices. If Alco took the time to test if knew what needs to be done there would be less mechanical an other problems

*newer* successor

yes! alco screwed the other guy!! and passed the savings on to you!

Why do you keep showing the same B&W clips over & over?

GE has had a history of questionable turbochargers

@alcobufff

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That's for sure! They supplied alco with their new water cooled turbos, to help improved 244 prime mover. These turned out to be worse then the "bad" air-cooled ones alco was making in house at that time!

An rs2 could do three times the work on half the fuel that an rs1 could do because the rs1 would be running flat out all the time.

A lot of 251c and e's on old navy LSTs... Snipes.

ALCO was more interested in greed not Quality and Assurance.

alco slowley...self destucted....really bad quality control!!!!