The Raven Rail LLC Facebook page is also pretty fascinating because, in addition to their own fleet of 539-powered locomotives, they also perform maintenance and repairs on other 539-powered Alcos, so you get a look at some cool stuff. Like these photos of them grinding valve seats in a 539 cylinder head. I wonder if the guys at Macintosh & Seymour though that guys would be maintaining and operating these engines 84 years later.
A 539T piston before and after a bath in Simple Green. That's a 12.5" diameter piston, for reference. Also, note how it has the two threaded holes in the crown of the piston, which is for attaching a fixture to lift the pistons out of the engine.
One of the NYS&W's silver and maroon RS-1s at Maywood, NJ with a passenger train. You can see the stack for the steam generator nestled up against the front of the cab. NYS&W was fully dieselized by June of 1945 with Alco RS-1s. The RS-1 came about as a request from the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific for a unit that retained the basic mechanical package of the Alco HH-1000 and S-2 switchers, but that could be used in road service as well. Alco responded with the RS-1, which paired a 1000hp turbocharged inline-6 539T, a GE GT-553-C generator and 4 GE 731 traction motors on a lengthened Alco S-2 switcher and added a short hood for crash protection and to accomodate a steam generator for use in passenger terminal switching and even the occasional passenger run. The Rock Island, Milwaukee Road, NYS&W, Tennessee Coal & Iron Railroad Company, and Atlanta & St. Andrews Bay Railroad ordered the first thirteen units, but before they could be delivered, they were requisitioned by the US Army, rebuilt with 3-axle trucks, and shipped off to the Trans-Iranian Railroad to supply the Soviet Union during WWII. The RS-1 ultimately sold 469 units, and was produced from March 1941 to March 1960, outliving the RS-2 and RS-3 and almost the RS-11. The RS-1 also established the concept of the "Road Switcher", sending EMD scrambling to try and figure out an answer to the new design of locomotive, which they first tried to answer with the unsuccessful BL-2 before building the smash-hit GP7.
One of the Chicago & Western Indiana's RS-1s at the 21st Street crossing in Chicago with their sole commuter train from Dolton, Illinois. The C&WI was essentially a terminal switching operation for the Dearborn Station in Chicago, being jointly owned by the Chicago & Eastern Illinios, the Grand Trunk Western, the Wabash, the Erie, and the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville (the Monon). It also provided switching services for the Santa Fe and the C&O, but neither of those two railroads owned any percentage in the C&WI. The Erie ownership is particularly evident with the old Erie Stillwell coaches being towed behind the RS-1.
One of the Minneapolis & St. Louis's RS-1s at the Ford Dodge, Iowa yard in June, 1956. The Misery & Short Life was the largest purchaser of the RS-1, buying 35 of them as part of their rapid dieselization process. Just four years after this photo, the M&StL was bought out by the C&NW, where these joined the 6 RS-1's that the C&NW already owned. A weird detail of the M&StL's RS-1s is that the first nine RS-1s were each delivered in a different scheme. All subsequent RS-ls were delivered in one of the original schemes. The M&StL had long been financially ailing and was on a rebound coming out of WWII, and wanted to show the world that they had come out of their long depression and become modern. However, if all of their RS-1s were painted the same color, the public would not have been able to tell the difference, and therefore not know how many the company owned. So to prove that they owned more than just one or two, the company made them all look different by giving them unique paint schemes. The shop employees were often allowed to develop the unique paint schemes.
Ex-M&StL RS-1s at the C&NW facilities in Cedar Lake. Considering their age, and the fact that the C&NW was never big on cleaning or painting their engines, they look quite presentable.
In reply to NickD :
I saw a headline about yet another NS derailment. At this point I think they should license "Crazy Train" for their corporate song.
Where once 4-12-2s and 2-10-2s resided, there is now an RS-1, an FA-1, and a GP30. This is the Union Pacific's Marysville, Kansas roundhouse. The Alco FA-1 #1643, was last used to push freights west out of town and now earmarked for trade-in to EMD. The RS-1 is in Union Pacific yellow and gray, but what's with the NAL lettering that's visible? Well, it technically belongs to Spokane International, a bridge line in Washington that connected UP and Canadian Pacific. Union Pacific bought the Spokane International in 1958, and was repainted in UP colors with SI lettering in 1962, and, along with 11 other SI units, has since been assigned to UP lines east. Judging by the puff of smoke just visible at the left, she's either just been started or throttled up.
Another Spokane International unit, this time at Topeka, Kansas. The photo was taken on 1966, and the #1211 had just three years to live. Also, check out the weird headlight mounted above the body.
Okay, so we've got another RS-1 in UP colors but labelled for Tidewater Southern Railway. But, hold on a second, the Tidewater Southern is a subsidiary of Western Pacific, as evidenced by the orange and silver WP Geep in the background. The #746 was originally built for the Spokane International, then was transferred to Union Pacific, who used it as a switcher at Denver, then was retired in December 1969 and sold to Chrome Crankshaft in December 27 1969. Chrome Crankshaft re-sold it on February 2nd, 1970 to Tidewater Southern where it became #746, later being repainted in the dark green and orange that WP had adopted. It's travelling days weren't over, because it was again sold to Central California Traction Company, on December 31st, 1976.
Another one of the Tidewater Southern RS-1s after being repainted into the new dark green and orange that Western Pacific adopted.
A C&WI RS-1 switches ATSF passenger cars at Dearborn Station in Chicago, while ATSF's Grand Canyon Limited is preparing to roll out on another track.
A pair of ex-Rutland RS-1s belonging to Tennessee Railroad work a coal drag towards Oneida, Tennessee.
Four of the Tennessee's RS-1s at work. Multiple unit was a fairly rare option on RS-1 and when they were optioned with it, they usually only had hookups on one end. So I'm not sure if they were running them as two two-unit pairs, or they retrofitted them with hookups on both ends to allow them run four as a set. I've ridden in the cab of an S-1, which has the non-turbocharged 660hp 539, and it was a gutsy paint-shaker of a machine under power. I can't imagine what four of the 1000hp version sounded like together.
All four RS-1s running elephant-style in June of '73. In a couple months, Southern Railway would assert more control over the Tennessee Railroad, reorganizing it as the Tennessee Railway, and the four RS-1s would find themselves on the dead line at Pegram
The big holdout for RS-1s was on that "soulful old road", the "3000 mile shortline” that was the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio. Wearing crusty, faded, unwashed red, the RS-1s rattled around the Deep South even after the GM&O's merger with the Illinois Central. Everyone expected ICG to immediately retire the RS-1s, but they held onto their jobs, and their GM&O paint, some three years after the merger before succumbing to an influx of Paducah-rebuilt Geeps.
Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:In reply to NickD :
I saw a headline about yet another NS derailment. At this point I think they should license "Crazy Train" for their corporate song.
All those bonuses they gave management for running oversize trains should be recalled.
In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :
Nah, just revive the "Norfolk Southern, What's Your Function?" but use the meme versions.
One of the few ex-Geemo RS-1s to be repainted into Illinois Central Gulf colors, #1269 is handling a transfer run over to SCL/L&N's Clisby Park Yard in Montgomery, Alabama. The headend crew is riding the front running boards to beat the summer heat. The RS-1s did everything for GM&O/ICG around Montgomery except power the 'big' road freights. Single Alcos made daily transfers to the other yards in Montgomery, pulling sometimes huge cuts over the hump between their tower near Bell Street and Union Station
This RS-1's livery is twice out of date. One of the units that GM&O purchased secondhand from the Illinois Terminal, it was never painted out of the IT green and yellow before GM&O was merged with Illinois Central. the #1054 is making a run from the local quarry to a handoff with the Rock Island at Joliet. Those cracks in the concrete of the bridge are rather alarming
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