ALCO definitely made some iconic steam locomotives; it's a crying shame that they couldn't get their act together on their diesel prime movers until it was too late.

@CrossOfBayonne

Жыл бұрын

Like the Hudsons and Mohawks for the NYC.

@CrossOfBayonne

Жыл бұрын

@@Finn-Windu Also their Niagaras too

@chickey333

Жыл бұрын

I remember the military used to use ALCO diesels in their ships and other devices. I once trained on an ALCO diesel in engine repair school.

@chickey333

Жыл бұрын

@Finn Windu That was over 40 years ago. All I remember is that it was gray large and I never saw one again after that. I think they had already decommissioned them at the time.

@stanfischer6175

Жыл бұрын

Alco is known for its greatest steam success, the Union Pacific Big Boy. In a span of two decades, they made their greatest diesel failure, the C855, also for the Union Pacific.

One thing that needs to be pointed out is WWII wartime restrictions on locomotive types. During WWII EMD was only allowed to produce road units like the F series and switchers. Alco and Baldwin were only allowed to produce road switchers and switchers/steam. This is why you don't see the Geep or FA/PA until post war.

@kristoffermangila

Жыл бұрын

Many Alco fans point to these restrictions as the "unfair" advantage EMD had, because it gave EMD an enormous opportunity to work the kinks out of the 567 engine in grueling wartime condition (not that it was needed; the 567 was an excellent engine by the time WW2 broke out), since it was used on smaller US Navy vessels and submarines, while Alco and Baldwin were unable to develop new diesel engines.

@johnd8892

Жыл бұрын

​@@kristoffermangila I think you mean the EMD 567 engine. The 645 being a much later development version of the landmark 567.

@kristoffermangila

Жыл бұрын

@@johnd8892 oops! Correcting now...

The town is pronounced with a "Sk" sound, like "Ska-neck-teddy" Thanks for covering this Darkness, great history in the area.

@juliankremer1900

Жыл бұрын

Thank u. I was going 2 say the same thing. I grew up in Brunswick, NY & his pronunciation of it was painful.

@section8usmc53

Жыл бұрын

I learned this by happenstance listening to old time radio shows perhaps 15 years ago now. I was listening to a variety/comedy show like Burns & Allen or something like that, and it came up, and I was shocked I hadn't heard of it to that point, and then they had a little fun with it because it's one of those words that's just simply fun to say. Totally unique, which I guess is why I remember where I was and when so vividly, when I first heard it.

@michigandon

Жыл бұрын

@@juliankremer1900 His pronunciations of a LOT of things is painful, to say the least.

@scotlawrence

2 ай бұрын

skuh-neck-tuh-dee

@jamesstuart3346

4 күн бұрын

Also StudeBAYker 😊

Awesome video as always!! Just a quick note: “Cold Starting” (or firing up) a steam locomotive takes 4-5 HOURS, not just 25-30mins. For this reason, skeleton steam crews (affectionately known as “Hoggers”) were left to maintain the locomotive’s Fire and Water in the boiler overnight, so there would be no “start” in the morning. This meant extra labor costs, fuel costs, and maintenance. Sadly, this is another reason diesels looked so appetizing to the railroads.

@stephenarbon2227

Жыл бұрын

I don't know about those large US mainline engines, but in the UK about 2 hours from cold, although I've read they could get an engine running in about an hour in an emergency using preheated water. Of course that also included all the lubrication, inspection etc, but you also need a lot of time at the end of the shift. While you might be able to start a large diesel engine in seconds, it still takes time to warm the engine & turbo, top up fuel, water & oil, and build up air, and inspections. Even with trucks & buses, you need 10 minutes to get going & 10 + minutes to fuel. So as you suggest, 'History in the Dark' was wrong with both timings, although the conclusion is still valid.

I love Alco's Century and road switcher series

Alco had three major problems which contributed to their demise: 1) Their diesel production was inefficient. Steam locomotives were custom and individually built and not assembled on a production line- like diesels are. This means that their profit margin was lower on every unit sold than their competitors. Was this Alco’s fault? During World War Two the government dictated what research and production could be done as well as what facilities were built. While GM was able to move forward with diesel locomotives Alco was given steam contracts and their diesel production facility in Auburn, NY was tasked to make engines for the navy. This put Alco behind the 8-ball when it came to later engine development. 2) The railroads were pressured by GM and GE to buy their products under the threat that they would move their traffic to competing railroads. I once interviewed the last president of Alco for a graduate paper on the history of their labor relations and when I asked him why Alcos smoked so much he sighed and said that his locomotives were ‘white elephants’ and that the railroad mechanics didn’t know how to work on them because there were far fewer of them in their fleet. 3) Labor relations were horrible. The workers in Schenectady were organized by the Steel Workers, and their national sold them down the river. Apparently there were some backroom deals where workers at other facilities owned by GM/ GE would get better contracts if the national union would kill off Alco. Just before they padlocked the gate, Alco had received a large overseas order which would have saved the company. The union demanded to renegotiate the labor rates and wouldn’t budge.

4 alco 251 prime movers were responsible for bringing the Saturn V rockets to the launch pad, and the space shuttles, and now the SLS. One alco 251 runs one set of tracks on the NASA transporter crawlers.

In October 2019 I rode a train pulled by an ALCO steam locomotive, the massive Big Boy 4014. We traveled from West Colton yard and up the Cajon Pass to Barstow.

I was born and lived in Schenectady until I was 18. The residents are all proud of this small city’s accomplishments! Thomas Edison’s workshop, the one time home of General Electric, the Knolls Atomic Laboratory and the American Locomotive Company, creator of 25 Big Boys….the greatest and most awesome locomotives every built! When I was young, I still remember seeing one Big Boy in their factory yard. Just the sheer size of it amazed me! I wanted add that last year when I visited Schenectady, there remains one remnant of ALCO… a crane used to lift these beasts.

@lancereagan3046

Жыл бұрын

My grandfather worked for ALCO & my great grandfather worked for them for 30 years before retiring.

@alanmiller9681

Жыл бұрын

@@lancereagan3046 Nice to hear. I bet they had some stories to tell.

@mzmegazone

Жыл бұрын

Much of the old Alco plant stood on the banks of the Mohawk River for many years, though part of GE. Some years back a small part was cleared when Erie Boulevard was extended all the way to Freeman's Bridge Road. But just a few years ago almost the entire remaining plant was razed to make way for the Rivers Casino and Resort. One small holdout remains, incongruously sitting amidst all the new development - STS Steel. The brick building is, I believe, the last remaining Alco building. The sections that are corrugated metal now all used to be glazed. It was all brick and glass, and the doors on the end used to have rails. You can still see them peeking through the dirt they've been covered with in a satellite view. I expect STS will move on at some point as they're the last holdout from what was formerly a completely industrial area. And, when they do, the last vestige of Alco on that site will vanish.

@mzmegazone

Жыл бұрын

Oh, there is another small bit of Alco left - though not from their railroading days. Right on the banks of the river is an innocuous, tiny building - the Walthousen Reactor Critical Facility. Yes, there is a small atomic reactor on that site, a legacy of Alco's foray into nuclear power. Today it is run by RPI as part of their nuclear program.

@alanmiller9681

Жыл бұрын

@@mzmegazoneNice post! I have some photos of the area from a year ago including the cranes.

Hi, just a note: Schenectady is pronounced Ska-neck-ta-dee. The Sch is the same as the sch that you get in the word school. I think it may originally come from the Dutch settlers in the area, since you see the same thing in the name Schuylkill (Skoo-kul) (a river in Philly), which is old Dutch for “hidden river”

@BroWCarey

Жыл бұрын

You are correct on the pronunciation. But the name Schenectady originally comes from the Mohawk language, meaning "Beyond the Pines."

@allwinds3786

Жыл бұрын

I was thinking the same thing

@robertfrancis6967

Жыл бұрын

I just got done making essentially the same comment. I grew up in the area unfortunately it has gone the way of so many other Great industrial Cities that literally built America Detroit, Gary Indiana Rochester NY Pittsburgh PA and so many others

@douglasskaalrud6865

6 ай бұрын

@michaelimbesi2314. I’m chuckling at the “Skoo-kul.” pronunciation of “Schuylkill.” The first time I came across it was in an article in the December 1983 issue of Trains Magazine. The article, entitled, “The Grandest Railway Terminal in America,” written by the famous Bert Pennypacker, was about Philadelphia’s Broad Street Station. The article had a map of course and there it was, the Schuykill River. Pennsylvania bridged it to get to the station over a very elongated causeway. What I wouldn’t give to be able to stand under that glass trainshed. 16 tracks wide! 22.3 million passengers….in 1913- even with tiny locomotives and tiny passenger cars! William Penn should still be keeping an eye on the station but the fools tore it down. We never learn to appreciate things until they’re gone. Here in Minneapolis we had a beautiful building called the Metropolitan building. They tore it down in the 60’s because the politicos wanted “urban renewal.” People still rage over it. It was a crime. If you haven’t you should check out the story on Broad Street Station. Terrific train photos, construction photos, Philadelphia skullduggery. You can find the issue on ebay-I’ve seen it three or four times. Should be required reading for true Pennsy fans.

@gg-ky6mf

5 ай бұрын

@@BroWCarey Loosely translates to “beyond the pine”, “over the pine ridge” or “place beyond the pines”. Place Beyond the Pines is the name of the movie set in Schenectady starring Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper. Movie was shot in Schenectady.

ALCO and BALDWIN walked so EMD and GE could run

@20:08, ALCo did sell a few to the Indian Railways, but most importantly, they sold the design, and ALCo based diesel electric locomotives were built in India by the Diesel Locomotive Works, recently renamed Banaras Locomotive Works. This factory stopped producing diesel electric locomotives in 2019. This factory made a lot of modifications to the original ALCo design, produced locomotives, mostly in 1676 mm Broad Gauge, 1000 mm Metre Gauge, and other gauges for export. Their locomotives are still in service in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Viet Nam, Malaysia, etc. A very popular model of ALCo spinoff is the DLW WDM-3D locomotive. ALCo designed high-adhesion bogies were also used in electric locomotives, made by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works, one of the largest locomotive manufacturers in the world.

@prabhatsourya3883

11 ай бұрын

Was looking for this comment. Indian Railways took the licenses, and redesigned the hell out of the 251B prime movers, making it surge up in power from the initial 2600hp, all the way to 3300hp, with some models going as high as 3600hp. Even in meter gauge, the YDM-4 locomotive, with a 6-cylinder 251 prime mover, was one of the best locomotives to give service in Indian Railways, only losing prominence when Project Unigauge took off, converting everything to broad gauge.

@pmaitrasm

11 ай бұрын

@@prabhatsourya3883, Thank you. 🙏

When Dad retired from the Navy, we moved to Schenectady. Graduated from Mont Pleasant in 1960. 2 of my uncles welded at ALCO. They have worked on "Big Boy"

@ashleyjiscool

10 ай бұрын

So they built 4014 and the other big boys

@louispaparella5766

10 ай бұрын

C@@ashleyjiscool

You can't start a full size cold steam locomotive in 30 minutes, unless you like boiler explosions. It's more like hours.

I grew up with the Illinois Central Railroad and they bought six Alco C636 in the late 60's, they were all gone by the 80's. They were bought for coal service in Kentucky but they were constantly in the shops in Paducah Kentucky for repairs

Alco was the preferred diesel manufacturer here in the northeast. Both the New Haven (after they abandoned the idea of electrics after spending millions to electrify their lines), and the Boston And Maine were fond of Alco. Even to this day, the tourist lines use vintage Alco locomotives.

Tbh, I wouldn't be surprised if ALCO only allowed transfer-of-technology to India because it knew their days were numbered. That's why they beat EMD in the Indian market. I like ALCO, because they were slow, but at LEAST they knew what the future was. Their efforts to modernize just came too little, too late. Very nice video uploaded on my birthday, btw!

@smoothcirmnal

Жыл бұрын

You now emd captured Indian market too, I have travelled in both alco powered trains & emd powered trains back in india, there’s lots of difference.. alco is definitely slow pick up, emd rocks, but people still love alco engines… & now I live in Schenectady, NY very close both alco & ge head quarters 😀 there a alco engine parked at Schenectady downtown as a memory

@AutismTakesOn

Жыл бұрын

@Thiyaag Raajn I know that EMD has a market in India as well, but... I can't help noticing that they only had offered Transfer of Technology since the 1990's... AFTER the failure of the EMD SD50 and the loss of their title as largest locomotive manufacturer to GE. Wonder if that influenced EMD at all to allow India to license-build its diesels... It's kinda sad to see them being replaced by electrics, but... Let's be real... At LEAST Indian Railways is trying to be environmentally friendly, which is more than what can be said for American railroads... Big accomplishment for a railroad that only retired broad gauge steam by 1995... India is still behind in many cases, but I must say, India is catching up rapidly, and I look forward to seeing Indian Railways being fully electrified!

@smoothcirmnal

Жыл бұрын

@@AutismTakesOn looking for to see the changes too

@prabhatsourya3883

11 ай бұрын

@@AutismTakesOn The major push towards electrification came more from the desire to move away from crude oil (which India has to import). In the short term, electrification moved the grid towards thermal power plants running on domestic coal, and in the long term, solar and wind power can be used for decarbonizing the grid.

@prabhatsourya3883

11 ай бұрын

@@smoothcirmnal Now, India is importing the new GE Evolution series locos to start substituting the ALCOs and EMDs after they reach the end of their service life. The numbers are not too many, just as backups after complete electrification, but they are going for efficiency I presume.

The best thing about Alco diesels is that they blew as much black smoke as Alco steamers.

Always loved alco, its very prevalent locally as I live very close to Schenectady(ska-nect-ady), and many of the historic railroads around here use old alcos

@chickey333

Жыл бұрын

Thanks. I could have sworn he was pronouncing that name wrong.

@mikejohnson5900

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the video! By now I'm sure you've been corrected on your pronunciation of Schenectady so I won't go there. I grew up in Sch'dy and my Uncle worked at ALCO. sometimes he would take me with him into the mammoth (to my child's eye) plant when he went in to pick up his check. Since then I have a fascination with the old factories like that and GE's, also in Sch'dy (the Electric City). I had the opportunity also to work at GE's R&D center for awhile on a project. It was fascinating.

You also mispronounced “Studebaker”. It’s “STOO-de-BAKER” where “baker” is the same as baking a cake. They are already a fascinating story of a company that began in the mid-19th century as a maker of horse carriages and transitioned to cars at the turn of the century. They ended up not being able to compete with the “Big 3” after WWII after a failed merger with luxury car manufacturer Packard. Studebaker ended up abandoning the automotive business a few years before Alco went defunct.

Need to make a video about The Lima Locomotive Works! I feel like Lima isn't talked about enough, they may have been the smallest of the locomotive builders but they had a HUGE impact on steam locomotive design (Lima Superpower concept) Lima Locomotive Works: the Swiss watchmaker of steam

@josephpadula2283

Жыл бұрын

Lima merged with Baldwin and Hamilton to make BLH. That company built the 16 hydro electric generators at my dam, each 220,000 Hp! BLH factory for dam equipment was in York, PA.

@e-train765

Жыл бұрын

@Joseph Padula I knew about the merger with Baldwin; I live in Ohio and I've taken a few trips to Lima to see the site where the works once was. I just always see people talking about Alco and Baldwin; nothing wrong with that, they should talked about, they both made amazing locomotives. But I feel like Lima isn't talked about enough; the whole superpower era was kicked off by the Lima A1 2-8-4.

One difference between Alco and EMD that you did not mention is that besides the prime mover, is that EMD also produced their own electrical equipment, so they did not need to depend on a outside supplier for their production. If Also would have or been able to get out from under GE they might of had a chance, but with EMD and GE being inhouse operations they would never be able to compete.

@pmaitrasm

Жыл бұрын

EMD was purchased by GM (General Motors), not GE (General Electric).

@JohnGeorgeBauerBuis

Жыл бұрын

GE almost gave up on building locomotives themselves but they got an export order and were willing to add an extra idler axle to reduce axle loadings on lightweight track. If GE had instead gone back to helping Alco, they might have just bought them when times got tough in the late 1960s.

Alco diversified into building heat exchangers used in the nuclear power industry. The name lives on through this company building heat changers.

Does everyone know that ALCO made an automobile? One of the workers was Walter Chrysler. Yes, Chrysler Corp.

ALCO was a boiler firm, their history and background is all based on steam boiler technology, they were not initially an internally combustion shop. The boiler shop is why they went to design nuclear reactors.

Being a resident of southern New England, it was fun to see footage from the New Haven documentary “a great railroad at work”.

Baldwin DID NOT UNDERSTAND THE ASSIGNMENT! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Why does it bother me so much that he pronounces it Studeb-o-ker not Studebaker

Alco locomotives were very popular in Australia, especially with the NSW government railway between 1951 & 1980. They were licensed & built locally by A.E. Goodwin. The largest order in 1959 being for 165 x 48 class units based on the DL-531 & RSD8 design. Followed by 100 x 44 class in 1957 based on the DL-500B & looking similar to the American FA locos with a cab at each end. The last Alco locomotives in NSW were 50 x 80 class in 1978 licensed from MLW Canada & built locally by Comeng who had taken over from A.E. Goodwin. Of interest is the 50 x 442 class from 1970 based on the DL-500G design. Some were meant to be modified to use EMD engines but they were never completed. However 12 units were modified in 2003 to use second parts including GE 7FDL engines from retired Conrail C30-7a's. I have been fortunate enough to have worked on all of these classes during my railway career. Even now there are examples of each of these classes still in operation. Favourite is definitely the 44 class despite it being the oldest. Least favourite is the GL class, just don't like the 7FDL engine & its slow response to any commands.

@martinbauer8395

Жыл бұрын

Not forgetting that the South Australian Railways (and later Australian National) had the same models, i.e. DL 531 & DL541 (830 and 600 class respectively), DL500B (930 class both single and double ended) and DL500G (700 class). S.A.R./AN did not have a equivalent of the 80 class (Model CE615A). 😎🇦🇺

@alanmiller9681

Жыл бұрын

Are any of these in the Melbourne area? Just wondering if I might view one when I’m there in September?

ALCO's CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS OUR INDIAN RAILWAYS AFTER INDEPENDENCE WAS AWESOME. IT LITERALLY SHOWED OUR RAILWAY A NEW PATH❤

You should also mention that ALCO built many electric locomotives in the 20th century, although the motors and transmissions came from companies like GE and Westinghouse.

It cracks me up knowing anyone could just walk up to ALCO and order a steam engine. Imagine if that happened today. "Ayo slime lemme get that juicy 4-8-2 Mohawk with some FEF on the side oh mama yes steam".

@HistoryintheDark

Жыл бұрын

I mean if you had the desire and the cash they really had no reason to say no. A sale was a sale. Hit me up with that 4-8-4 Niagara, ALCO. I'm gonna put it in my garage and hide it from Perlman.

@BLACKOUTBLOWBACK

Жыл бұрын

@@HistoryintheDark I know it's just hilarious thinking about some random guy on the street walking up to ALCO to buy a locomotive to like Idk put on his shelf or something.

Canadian Coast Guard here, we had up until recently 40x Alco V16 251’s powering our t1100 and t1200 icebreakers as well as the ccgs hudson. Right now we have 24x units. Compared to modern equivalent marine engines, these things burn through about 40% more oil, 15-20% more fuel and have cracking issues in the blocks as well as main bearing cap serration fretting.

Oh you just know that upper management at Alco and Baldwin were saying that diesel wouldn’t be viable let’s stick to stream then when they realize that they are being left behind and being forced to see their companies are on a downhill run it’s going to be someone else’s fault not theirs.

Starting a locomotive is a bigger deal than you think...it involves opening pressure cocks on the cylinders (to allow water condensation out before it hydrolocks the engine), and using the main traction generator as a starter engine (you backdrive it by running the generator as a motor). The pressure cocks have to be closed after motoring all of the water out of the cylinders, and the fuel turned on. You can watch YT videos of the process. Someone must have automated the process well, because the local short line railroad can start their EMD switchers by calling them with a cellphone and entering their security code 😂 . But it was such a pain that until about the 2000's, locomotives were left idling when not in use on most big railroads in the USA. If one was allowed to shut down, it took a mechanic to restart it (they didn't want to risk the road crews messing up the start procedure).

@Aaron-uf3sl

Жыл бұрын

Starting a diesel loco is a brain dead process my guy

My suggestion has come true!

@vaclavmacgregor2464

Жыл бұрын

I was also in it though i think BLW collapsed faster.

skuh-NECK-tah-dee (It's Dutch, I think)

@RobertYesse

Жыл бұрын

I live not far from there and I was like what did he call it

@Elliottblancher

Жыл бұрын

Scen neck ka dee

@alexhajnal107

Жыл бұрын

@@RobertYesse To be honest, the butchered pronunciations are one of the joys of this channel.

@ChickVicious237

Жыл бұрын

​@@RobertYesse same. I'm about an hour away and I've never heard anyone pronounce it that way.

@Steveack

8 ай бұрын

It is a failed pronunciation of an Iroquois phrase, often thought to be “ a place beyond the pines”, the movie of the same name was, in part, filmed in Schenectady.

When someone asked science fiction writer Harlan Ellison where his ideas came from he'd say, "Schenectady."

At 3:43, did anyone else notice that the drivers were turning the opposite direction of all the other wheels ?

@Trainfan1055Janathan

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! I thought I was going insane.

@TheGs4_4449

Жыл бұрын

Yeah, maybe a lever wasn’t flipped the right way.

@Toledo1940

Жыл бұрын

NO. The rails had a coat of oil on them, to make the drivers spin at a high rate; this caused the engine to be ready for higher speeds than it would be if it were first placed in slower speed service to make the moving parts fit together for higher speeds later.

@TheGs4_4449

Жыл бұрын

Huh. That makes sense.

@michigandon

Жыл бұрын

@@Toledo1940 So that was how they were broken in at the factory? Interesting.

i love alco diesel switchers and i also love their Montreal locomotive works locomotives too.

You forgot to mention their cutest locomotive and among the most reliable. Railroads like the Erie Lackawanna daisy chained them and ran them as prime Mainline power. They were also among the EL railway's favorite switchers....the RS2 & RS3

Looks like the Baldwin version of this video is going to be a hoot!😂

Fairbanks Morse still supporting the 251 even in the modern emissions environment is a real pleasant surprise to me.

@pipedreamin

Жыл бұрын

I didn’t even know they were still around, they made tractors back in the way long ago.

@Aaron-uf3sl

Жыл бұрын

4 stroke engines are inherently more fuel efficient than any 2 stroke engines at the end of the day. This is why EMD is starting to transition away from 2 stroke to 4 stroke motors for US domestic products.

@markpusko2480

Жыл бұрын

There are a lot of Alco engines used in marine applications & even as back up generators at some power stations.

@TheMrPeteChannel

3 ай бұрын

ALCO lives on! Fairbanks Morse also made locomotives one time.

Baldwin really was doin their own thing.

So glad you made mention of Lima and Lima-Hamilton! Oh wait, I don't remember that part!

ALCO is a victim of the "success" of their best selling RS-3. Sold a lot of them but then had to fix defective crank shafts in the 244 prime movers. Bunch of hits and misses with subsequent locos but never got back on their feet. The Century series locos were very good but it was too little. Too late.

You should read ALCO THE SUCCESS THAT DIDNT LAST ITS QUITE .A GREAT BOOK AND FULL OF Intersting and obsure INFORMATION

I just have a question for you. Have you ever done a video on the various engine types of the Norfolk and Western steam engines before they went diesel. If you haven't could you possibly do one covering that era of steam in central and southern Appalachia. Thank you love your videos especially your openings to your videos.

@williamclarke4510

Жыл бұрын

N&W steam probably has more videos than any other road.

Love your channel Darkness!!!!

That s...with the cat 😆😆 that was a cruve ball but a good one ... great video 👍👍

This is a classic example of a company with a large investment and experience in a legacy technology and would actually hurt their profits moving forward away from that. You hurt your current business migrating to new technology. It happened to Kodak inventing digital photography, and is happening now with auto manufacturers moving away from internal combustion to electric cars.

@robertadams6606

Жыл бұрын

You would do well to chronicle the PRR. Once thought of as the railroad of the World, they too sold out on the Steam Locos, but could not recover when it came to Diesels. In Altoona today has a most famous Loco facility, but was many yrs. between building their own Locos.

Alco didn't have a parent company like General Motors that EMD had.

SKA -NECK-TEDDY......appreciate your videos but grew up in Glens Falls NY just 30 miles north.

I remember the Grand Trunk Western as being a MAJOR steam customer back in the day.

I seem to remember that Alco built the nuclear reactor,or at least part of the reactor,that used to be at the University of Virginia.

Sir/dude which ever you prefer, the title of the city is phonetically Skah neckt added. Now, I do also realize that during the 2nd world war the pronunciation on some towns/ cities , as well as other proper nouns were enunciated differently. Such as elementary. Most say Elementary, were as native new yorkers(rural) pronounced it elemen-Tary . That said the name is pronounced Ska Nectady. A native American pronunciation. I may be in error, but....

You never said the date when alco was formed.

My favorite loco ever is the beautiful ALCO PA. As much as I love EMD locos, the PA owns my heart. I'm a big WP fan, but Santa Fe had the most attractive locos in their Warbonnet paint.

EMD went on to be the market leader until the '80s. The SD50 ended that. Now GE has 70% of the locomotive market today.

@pmaitrasm

Жыл бұрын

Part of the problem might be General Motors that took over EMD.

The Lima Locomotive Co. was known as the Cadillac of steam locomotives and was considered the best steam locomotive manufacturer.

my job is steam locomotive fitting and its interesting seeing this old B roll of what i normally do everyday, picked up a few pointers there i wont lie. its cool though seeing them bash tyres onto a wheel or pulling a piston out of a cylinder and being like "damn i just did that the other day" 20 to 30 minutes to start a steam engine from cold is extremely optimistic LOL our ones take about 3 hours from cold but american sized engines probably vary from 6 to 24 hours

Speaking of Alcos, are we going to get a SP&S video?

As an Indian I would like to sincerely thank Alco!

9:17 you don't need to tell me, I KNOW how chaotic they can be

Still actually have some rs-3's still in service nearby where I love

North British in Glasgow struggled to manage the transition to diesel. Also hoping to win contracts it sold locomotives to British Rail at a loss leader and signed into more onerous warranty contracts than British Rail had with its own engineering department

Even though Alco Doesn’t exist as a company anymore, it still exists through it’s locomotives that are preserved and still in operation. Also, Models are good at representing locomotives too.

@TheMrPeteChannel

3 ай бұрын

ALCO Heat exchangers still exists as a company.

"15 or 20 minutes" to start a steam locomotive from a cold? I had a good chuckle over that one. Firing up a steam locomotive from cold dead to working pressure takes hours. Steam pressure must be built up slowly to ensure even heating of the boiler. Fast warming of the boiler pretty well guarantees warping and subsequent leaks. Even building up pressure on an engine that has been sitting overnight with a banked fire can take a lot longer than 15 to 20 minutes. As for starting a diesel in a few seconds, realistically, that is a tad off as well. You may get the diesel engine running after a few seconds, but moving it, especially under load, before that diesel is thoroughly warmed up is a sure bet that, after a few times pulling that stunt, you will be spending a few tens of thousands of dollars swapping out the prime mover in the beast for one without a big nasty hole in its side.

Can you do Baldwin locomotive Works next and please mention the employee, Stoughton Chapin

The DL109'S were successful on the New Haven RR. New Haven had 30 of these nominally "passenger only" locomotives, then WW2 happened and the US Government under the War Production Board said Alco should only produce Steam and Diesel (Switcher) locomotives. The New Haven however found great success w/the DL109 and petioned the War Production Board to allow Alco to build a further 30 DL109'S as The New Haven RR was using these passenger units during the day for crack passenger trains, and at night for extra Wartime Frieghts. Very successful on the New Haven and compatible w/thier Alco Switcher fleet.

The EMD prime movers were not perfect either. One reason the engines were built in A-B-B-A combinations is that 1950s diesels broke down more often than steam locomotives they were meant to replace. However, once mechanics became familiar with a V-12 567 diesel engine. an Alco diesel engine became an unwanted outsider. Fairbanks-Morse made fantastic diesel engines thanks to all they did for the U.S. Navy during WWII, but by the time FM entered the market, EMD already dominated the business. The Trainmaster was probably the best diesel locomotive in its time, but none of that mattered when EMD was ubiquitous.

I have a soft spot for ALCOs, my wife and I were married on one.

Another famous locomotive being part of the ALCO heritage is the Rogers 119 of the UP. Got in the news again on May 10.

Australian licence built ALCO Diesels are still working on the rails here

Great history, Exelent work, I recently took a trip on the " newly" restored R class " R766" 2-8-2, ( by Chris Richards over sixteen years) this Powerful loco runs Beautifully ,if you ever make it to Australia, it's must, My town Goulburn NSW Australia is a great rail history, My sister just finished restoration on there home a 1867 Original Goulburn Station, ( it looks fabulous, ) later named " Station Masters house"

@Aaron-uf3sl

Жыл бұрын

Chris Richards did nothing to help R766. If anything he has done the most damage possible to the group that presently operates it by allowing the land they were based on to be sold to developers (note, Chris Richards is the person that sold this land to said developers) without having anything in paperwork saying we want this parcel of land excluded. Chris Richards is a dog.

Every area has a few places or words that only locals know the pronounciation of, so I'm not going to fault you for getting Schenectady wrong, but I will dock you for Studebaker! I'm in NW Ohio, and besides people from other areas trying to pronounce Lima, Oh, like LeeMa, we always can tell when an ad is made outside of the area. The city of Maumee, which is pronounced Maw-Mee, is usually pronounced Mao-mee, and in one case it was Mommie, which had one of the local news anchors laughing when they came back from playing the ad. A couple of South Toledo and Maumee streets that seem to confuse outsiders are Conant St, the main street of Maumee, which is pronounced. Co-Nunt. Ads have called it Co-Nut, Co-Nant, Con-ant, and a couple more. The best one of all was one day a business on Byrne Rd, pronounced simply BURN, had an ad made in Columbus, Oh. It was nothing special until the very end, when the woman doing the voiceover said the address as "1235 S. Buyr-Nee Road in Toledo". I was talking to a friend on the phone the first time it was on, and we both cracked up laughing. Two days later, a man's voice came on at the end and corrected the name of the street. It was very crudely done, and obviously tacked on. To this day, every so often, we hear an ad with one or more of the above names screwed up. It always amazes me that nobody catches it until it's aired, then it's usually fixed pretty quickly.

For an American loco company that ended before I was born, the fact that they are the first US loco company I, as a Brit, think of says that their legacy is sound even if their engineering sometimes failed.

@pmaitrasm

Жыл бұрын

Pretty much the same story as Beyer Peacock of Manchester.

No hablo Inglés. Espero que puedan traducir esyo. Aquí en Argentina, todavía, circulan la mayor parte de ALCO RSD16, fabricadas en Schenectady. Fueron fabricadas en 1957, y es la locomotora predilecta por el ambiente ferroviario argentino. Cómoda, espaciosa, cabina fresca y un motor de 1950 HP, indestructible! Qué mas se puede pedir a una locomotora?

@ashleyjiscool

10 ай бұрын

Don’t worry, it was translated

Alco four cycle stroke 16 cylinder engine 3000hp, EMD 20v567 to match. Alco feel before EMD gone, mostly GE today.

And yet the Alco World series were the equal to, or better than the equiv export EMD classes. The Alco DL531 proved to be superior to the EMD G8 the Alco DL-500 and 541 equal to the G16. And the C636's in the Pilbra were preferred over the SD-40

Cook & Rogers made some really interesting steam locomotives. Maybe a top 5 video of the most interesting of them used on history/design?

@williammacdonald3173

Жыл бұрын

Rogers made the general and the Texas If I am not mistaken

SCA-NECK-IT-TEA! NOT! SCH-NECK-ITY

*ALCO Soot-Train!*

Also, diesel engines require a 2 - 3 min (or more. Less with preheated.) Then a good 5 - 10 min warm up.

There were 3 major steam locomotive manufactures “back in the day” which I take to mean the mid-1920s. In addition to Alco and Baldwin, there was also Lima (pronounced Lie-Ma).

@nrd515

Жыл бұрын

I'm always amazed at how many people insist Lima is pronounced LeeMa, like the city in Peru. When I lived out west, I had many arguments with other railfans about it. I would ask them if they thought that Lima, Ohio residents thought that It was pronounced LeeMa? When I told them I was from Toledo, that usually would shut them up. But then again, people on the East side of Toledo insist Nevada street is pronounced NeVayDuh, and some really old people seem to think Utah is pronounced Oootah!

I think not a lot of us know know what made Alco Defunct right?

Did anyone else notice that at 3:41, the locomotive is going *forward* while the driving wheels are going *backward?* Am I the only one that notice that?

We 🇮🇳 gave our all old Alco locomotive to Bangladesh 🇧🇩

schenenctady born rn, proud of alco history and our city history.

If you want to see Alcos still working daily, come to Argentina: the RSD16 and RSD35 are still running!

What we're seeing right now with the automotive industry is a repeat of the locomotive and rail industries. Tesla and GM are equivalent to EMD and ALCO.

NSW railways had lots of diesel Alcos unlike Victoria which bought Clydes (EMD). What struck me was how much thick greasy smoke they made from a start. I’m sure they made more smoke than a steam loco. I was told that was normal behavour even for a new one. I understand that Alcos are still running in NSW and South Australia. They were not highly regarded by railfans.

@markpusko2480

Жыл бұрын

That Alco soot you talk of was in fact common from new on some of the earlier NSWGR & Commonwealth Railways locomotives (40, 43 44, 45, 442, 48, 80 class in NSW & 600, 700, 800, 830, 930 of CR). They had an immediate throttle response the soot was from a sudden rich fuel mixture when the driver throttled up & a delay in turbo lag before additional air got into the cylinders. I've known NSW Alco's to be favourable with both railfans & train crews. I know I preferred operating them compared to EMD products.

@darylcheshire1618

Жыл бұрын

@@markpusko2480 I remembered when shunting, when the loco began to move the engine would at low revs belch out this thick oily looking smoke. It was at Albury yard. Thank you for your reply, the turbo bit was very informative.

@markpusko2480

Жыл бұрын

@@darylcheshire1618 if you think the exhaust is bad, you should look in the engine compartments of some Alco loco's for all the oil leaks lol

There was actually three major Builders of steam locomotives Baldwin Lima and Alco

MLW BABY!!!🙌🙌🙌 Montreal locomotive works made some legendary Canadian locomotives

Cool

I didn’t know 4014 was an Alco. Cool.

I had an ad right after he said wait what’s going on with Baldwin 😂

Eh... Alco is still around it's just not what it was. It's ran as a division under Westinghouse under GE. The steam and Turbine Equipment they developed in the 30's and 40's are still produced and used today.

I work on an old dredge that still uses an ALCO 251B V16 diesel to run its main pump.

Okay. You got me. It was the 244. Hell Im gettin too old to remember everything.