I built the Strombecker kit of this locomotive. I don't remember much other than I thought it was beautiful compared to black New York Central steamers.
The Colorado Springs section of the Rocky Mountain Rocket. An EMC AB6 is on the head end of the train at the Colorado Springs depot. This model of locomotive was built so that the train could be separated and rejoined in Limon, Colorado with the Denver Section of the train, putting a normal E6 on the point between there and Chicago. The train was discontinued in 1966.
Am I wrong in thinking "on the point" means coupled directly to the front of the train? Because these power-baggage units operated all the way to Chicago, as a booster east of Limon. If I'm remembering that terminology correctly, east of Limon it was on the point and the normal E-6A (which handled the Denver section, separate from the Colorado Springs section west of Limon on the UP) was in the lead.
Which makes sense. Why can't I remember what that other term is? Am I getting old? Maybe on the point refers to all locomotives in the lead (as opposed to pushers) and I just misunderstood the term.
Great photo, r_i_straw! A friend of mine is kitbashing an AB6 in N Scale. It looks great, and now I may have to do one myself.
Love it @acptulsa! Such a prehistoric beast of a locomotive. I looked it up in my copy of Louis Marre's Rock Island Diesel Locomotives 1930-1980 (c. 1982) and found that it was an Alco-GE project, the Rock Island's first diesel, delivered in 1930. It spent its life at Chicago's LaSalle Street Station, before being retired in 1950. The diesel engine charged batteries and the traction motors drew from the batteries, 126-1/2 Tons of batteries in fact. The Ingersoll-Rand 6-Cyl. diesel engine made 300 HP and ran at a constant speed to drive the generator.
I also thank you. I had assumed it was a later version of the first GE/Ingersol Rand product, CNJ #1000.
It is. It uses the same prime mover, for example. The battery trick was a response to the big Ingersoll-Rand diesel's lack of power at 300. ALCo built the carbodies and trucks for early units like Jersey Central 1000, but by the time 10000 came out GE was building those itself, and ALCo had been invited out.
On September 7, 1964, 60 years ago today, Rock Island Train No. 18, the TWIN STAR ROCKET, is at Union Station, Houston, Texas, awaiting a 4:35 p.m. departure for Minneapolis, Minnesota. The train will be cut back to Kansas City-Minneapolis in just a few weeks. On the next track, Santa Fe Train No. 66, the CALIFORNIA SPECIAL, behind Alco PAs, is due out of Houston at 6:45 p.m. for Clovis, New Mexico, with connections west. If you were standing at this spot today, you would be in the middle of Minute Maid baseball stadium where the Houston Astros play. Joe McMillan photo.
Love the dwarf signals on each of the station tracks. Joe McMillan spent his career with the Santa Fe, retiring as Assistant Director of Safety in the mid '90s. He's written and published a bunch of books since. I met him long ago when I had my summer college job in Chicago, a fine man.
Great photo! My Dad used to ride that very train (Twin Star Rocket) back in the day. Interesting to note the Erie baggage car in the consist. Did that occur often on the Rock Island? I guess they would have picked it up in Chicago? I can think of no other potential interchange points for the two roads. I like seeing photos of foreign road passenger equipment on the Rock Island, or other roads that I model. It gives me ideas for my own N Scale efforts, and an additional opportunity to put "Rule Number One" for model railroads into effect...with evidence to back it up!
Taken around 1952 through an auto's windshield while traveling towards Groom, Texas, on Route 66. This photo is looking westbound on the Rock Island route that ran between Tucumcari, N,M and Memphis, TN. US 66 followed the railroad between Oklahoma City and Tucumcari. Photo courtesy of Lewis Kemp.
