nyrailfan 202's video: Engines of Metro North EMD GP8 EMD GP9 GE B23-7 and ALCO RS3M

Hello, everyone, it’s NyRailfan 202 here and today we are going to continue engines of metro north by talking about some of the work locomotives metro north has used throughout its history. This will be part one of a two part episode, in part one we will discuss all of metro north’s retired work locomotives and in part two we will discuss all of metro norths currently used work locomotives. That means that in part one we will discuss the Alco RS3-M’s, The EMD Gp9 EMD Gp8 and the GE B23-7’s. In part two we will discuss the EMD Gp35R’s and Bl14CG’s. First, we will discuss the history of each work locomotive and then we will discuss how metro-north used them. Now without further ado lets get started. In 1941 the American Locomotive Company or Alco unveiled the road switcher model which was different to previously produced diesel-electric locomotives. Rather than a car body that extended the full width of the frame, the new road switcher type had external walking platforms on all sides of the engine for ease of access. Alco unveiled this new style on their RS-1 or road switcher one. The engine had a 539 T prime mover with 1,000 horsepower and whith the model proving popular with railroads, ALCO started their production run of 456 units for various railroads around the world. In the coming years, other locomotive manufactures such as GE, EMD, Fairbanks Morse, and Baldwin would enter the road switcher market with their own models, and alco’s original road switcher was falling out of fashion. So in 1949 ALCO unveiled their RS-2 or road switcher two which used an updated 244B alco prime mover with 1,500 horsepower. With competitors again improving and increasing the horsepower of their road switcher models Alco needed to again update their road switch model to remain relevant in the competitive road switcher market. Alco then unveiled the RS-3 or Road Switcher 3 with an updated v12 alco 244D prime mover with 1,600 horsepower. Alco Would end up producing 1,418 RS3’s and the model was decently successful, but 4 years later emd unveiled the much more appealing gp9 with 1,750 horsepower. With EMD becoming the leader of the road switcher market alco created ALCO decided to focus on other things and ended all production of their road switchers in 1956. Problems still were to come for the alco road switchers as the alco 244 prime movers found in the RS2’s and 3’s were extremely unreliable. Many railroads had the prime movers of their alco road switchers replaced to keep them in service as the cab and frame design of the engines were still good. Penn Central did no differently and in 1972 penn central began rebuilding their alco road switchers at their DeWitt shops in Syracuse new york. Penn Central chose to refit the units with EMD 567 prime movers from various retired emd locomotives. These prime movers had the same power output as the alco ones but the reliability of the units was greatly increased. Penn Central designated them as RS2 and 3 M’s with the M meaning modified. Railfans preferred the name DeWitt Geeps as the were modified at dewitt shops with engines from the emd general-purpose or geep series. When Penn Central filed for bankruptcy in 1971 the company was restructured several times by the federal government to try and keep the company afloat. But this was to no avail and as the federal government saw the need for a freight railroad in the northeastern united states Conrail was created, a government corporation to take over from Penn central. The change happened in 1976 and at that time all locomotives and equipment rostered by Penn central were now the property of Conrail including the rs3m’s rebuilt by the railroad. Moving on to the next work locomotive the metro north rostered which was a strong competitor to the ALCO road switcher. The Electro-Motive Diesel or EMD general-purpose series of locomotives. EMD unveiled their first road switcher type locomotive in 1949 and named it the general-purpose series of locomotives. This was EMD’s first locomotive that did not have a car body as the main locomotive that this model was supposed to compete with was alco’s successful road switcher models. EMD’s first in the series was the GP7 which had a EMD 567 B prime mover with 1,500 horsepower and railroads were extremely impressed with the model. But Alco’s road switchers were still on par with the gp7, but emd wanted to expand further into the competitive road switcher market so in 1954 the company unveiled the next locomotive in the general-purpose series of locomotives. The GP9 which had an EMD 567C prime mover with 1,750 horsepower which was considerably more than the competition could offer. EMD would go on to produce 3,446 GP9 locomotives for various railroads around the world, while alco would exit the road switcher market. EMD would go on to continue production of their general-purpose series of locomotives to this day with even more variations.