ALCO DL-109
Encyclopedia
The ALCO DL-109 is one of six models of A1A-A1A diesel locomotive
s built to haul passenger trains by the American Locomotive Company
(ALCO) between December, 1939 and April, 1945 ("DL" stands for Diesel Locomotive). They were of a cab unit
design, and both cab-equipped lead A units DL-103b, DL-105, DL-107, DL-109 and cabless booster B unit
s DL-108, DL-110 models were built. The units were styled by noted industrial designer Otto Kuhler
, who incorporated into his characteristic cab (US Patent D121,219) the trademark 3-piece windshield design. A total of 74 cab units and 4 cabless booster units were built.
(1,500 kW). The first unit built was ALCO Specification DL-103b, was 4 ft 5 in (1.3 m) longer than the other cab units, and became Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad
#624. The DL-103b had the two radiator sections positioned together at the end of the carbody, while all other units had a split radiator arrangement with one placed at the back of the unit and one situated in the middle. The DL-103b was built with twin straight-6
-cylinder ALCO 538T diesel engines as prime movers
; all other DLs in this series were built with the newer twin straight-6-cylinder ALCO 539T
diesel engines. The DL-103b also had all-electric driven accessories, while the later models had belt-driven accessories. The differences between all subsequent models were minor. The DL-105s went to the Rock Island as #622 and GM&O #270-271. All other early customers got DL-107 cab units and DL-108 boosters until the first DL-109 was delivered to the New Haven. During the war, the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio and Southern Railway bought DL109s and the Southern bought the only DL-110. It is not known whether this is because the model was a significant improvement, was the model approved for wartime production, or both.
The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad
received special permission from the War Production Board
to purchase #0710–#0759 as dual-use (passenger/freight) locomotives; they were built between 1942–1945. Passenger-only locomotives (including the rival EMD E6
) were not approved for production during this time. The first 10, #0700–#0709, were delivered right after the attack on Pearl Harbor
in December 1941 from ALCO's Schenectady
factory, allowing the road to prove their freight-hauling abilities just in time. The New Haven owned the most DL-109s, rostering 60 units in 1945.
There were three classes among the New Haven units noting some differences between the manufacture of each batch. The DER-1a (Diesel-Electric Road) units #0700–#0709 had the original design with a mass of vents on the roof, while the DER-1b (#0710–#0749) and DER-1c (#0750–#0759) had the simplified winterization hatches instead. The New Haven DL-109s could be found hauling passenger trains during the day and freight trains at night. The class was rebuilt once, replacing the plywood sides, removing the decorative side windows in favor of a steel screen, and several other changes.
Two DL-109s received a special rebuild to make them able to "MU" (multiple unit) with more than one other unit; originally they only had the MU cables on the rear meaning that only a back-to-back pair could be made. The two special units had cables put on the front so they could be used to make a 3-unit set for longer trains. One of the units had the nose rebuilt with an access door, raising the headlight and changing the contour of the nose.
The DL-109s eventually ran their last miles in the late 1950s in local commuter service around Boston. One special unit was retained through the 1960s in Boston as a power plant; PP-716 was converted to produce power for a test third rail
in Boston. Eventually PP-716 became the last DL-109 on the face of the Earth and fell to the scrappers torch under the Penn Central
at Dover St. Yard, in June 1969.
The other railroad's DL-109s were primarily scrapped during the 1950s. The Rock Island had rival builder EMD repower their newest, the #621, but this doesn't seem to have extended its career greatly. One notable pair on the Milwaukee Road lived charmed lives. Units #14A, B were delivered in October 1941, and paired up to run the Chicago-Minneapolis Afternoon Hiawatha and overnight Fast Mail back to Chicago. The units, along with EMD E6
#15A, B performed wonderfully during World War II with consists of Hiawathas expanding up to 20 cars and standing room only. The paint scheme was designed by Otto Kuhler
, who had designed most of the 1938 Hiawatha
and Milwaukee Road class F7
'Baltic' or 'Hudson' 4-6-4
locomotives. It had a yellow stripe up the nose and torpedo flank orange belts on the mostly grey body. This scheme did not last, and it was painted to resemble the other passenger unit EMD E6, #15A, B with the lightning bolt/grey scheme. After the War, they were repainted into the FM Erie-built
locomotive scheme, and then in 1950, the Hiawatha orange-maroon band with black roof scheme.
The units on the Milwaukee logged over 3 million miles by 1953, and were overhauled. The motors and prime movers were sent to Alco for rebuilding, and the shopmen at the Milwaukee's in Milwaukee rebuilt the locomotives. They came out of the shops with facelifts, which the addition of EMD bulldog noses, and changed appearance which made them look like an EMD locomotive. The units then worked on secondary lines to Canton, South Dakota
Green Bay, Wisconsin
and Madison-Chicago trains until retirement; #14B was finally scrapped at Jones Island in Milwaukee in May 1964. The Milwaukee employees called #14A "Old Maude."
Diesel locomotive
A diesel locomotive is a type of railroad locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine, a reciprocating engine operating on the Diesel cycle as invented by Dr. Rudolf Diesel...
s built to haul passenger trains by the American Locomotive Company
American Locomotive Company
The American Locomotive Company, often shortened to ALCO or Alco , was a builder of railroad locomotives in the United States.-Early history:...
(ALCO) between December, 1939 and April, 1945 ("DL" stands for Diesel Locomotive). They were of a cab unit
Cab unit
A cab unit and a carbody unit are body styles of locomotives in railroad terminology. While closely related, they are not exactly the same....
design, and both cab-equipped lead A units DL-103b, DL-105, DL-107, DL-109 and cabless booster B unit
B unit
A "B" unit, in railroad terminology, is a locomotive unit which does not have a driving cab, or crew compartment, and must therefore be controlled from another, coupled locomotive with a driving cab . The term booster unit is also used. The concept was largely confined to North America...
s DL-108, DL-110 models were built. The units were styled by noted industrial designer Otto Kuhler
Otto Kuhler
Otto Kuhler was an American designer, one of the best known industrial designers of the American railroads. According to Trains magazine he streamstyled more locomotives and railroad cars than Cret, Dreyfuss and Loewy combined...
, who incorporated into his characteristic cab (US Patent D121,219) the trademark 3-piece windshield design. A total of 74 cab units and 4 cabless booster units were built.
History
All models developed 2,000 hpHorsepower
Horsepower is the name of several units of measurement of power. The most common definitions equal between 735.5 and 750 watts.Horsepower was originally defined to compare the output of steam engines with the power of draft horses in continuous operation. The unit was widely adopted to measure the...
(1,500 kW). The first unit built was ALCO Specification DL-103b, was 4 ft 5 in (1.3 m) longer than the other cab units, and became Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad
Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad
The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was also known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, The Rock.-Incorporation:...
#624. The DL-103b had the two radiator sections positioned together at the end of the carbody, while all other units had a split radiator arrangement with one placed at the back of the unit and one situated in the middle. The DL-103b was built with twin straight-6
Straight-6
The straight-six engine or inline-six engine is a six-cylinder internal combustion engine with all six cylinders mounted in a straight line along the crankcase...
-cylinder ALCO 538T diesel engines as prime movers
Prime mover (locomotive)
In engineering, a prime mover is an engine that converts fuel to useful work. In locomotives, the prime mover is thus the source of power for its propulsion. The term is generally used when discussing any locomotive powered by an internal combustion engine...
; all other DLs in this series were built with the newer twin straight-6-cylinder ALCO 539T
ALCO 539T
The Alco 539T was a diesel prime mover built by the American Locomotive Company. This engine was also used as a stationary powerplant, used in pipeline pumping stations, tugboats and dredges. It has a straight six, four-stroke design in a cast block which produced from . The engine has a bore of...
diesel engines. The DL-103b also had all-electric driven accessories, while the later models had belt-driven accessories. The differences between all subsequent models were minor. The DL-105s went to the Rock Island as #622 and GM&O #270-271. All other early customers got DL-107 cab units and DL-108 boosters until the first DL-109 was delivered to the New Haven. During the war, the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio and Southern Railway bought DL109s and the Southern bought the only DL-110. It is not known whether this is because the model was a significant improvement, was the model approved for wartime production, or both.
The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad
New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad
The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , was a railroad that operated in the northeast United States from 1872 to 1968 which served the states of Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts...
received special permission from the War Production Board
War Production Board
The War Production Board was established as a government agency on January 16, 1942 by executive order of Franklin D. Roosevelt.The purpose of the board was to regulate the production and allocation of materials and fuel during World War II in the United States...
to purchase #0710–#0759 as dual-use (passenger/freight) locomotives; they were built between 1942–1945. Passenger-only locomotives (including the rival EMD E6
EMD E6
The EMD E6 was a , A1A-A1A, passenger train locomotive manufactured by Electro-Motive Corporation, and its corporate successor, General Motors Electro-Motive Division, of La Grange, Illinois. The cab version, or E6A, was manufactured from November, 1939 to September, 1942, and 91 were produced...
) were not approved for production during this time. The first 10, #0700–#0709, were delivered right after the attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
in December 1941 from ALCO's Schenectady
Schenectady, New York
Schenectady is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 66,135...
factory, allowing the road to prove their freight-hauling abilities just in time. The New Haven owned the most DL-109s, rostering 60 units in 1945.
There were three classes among the New Haven units noting some differences between the manufacture of each batch. The DER-1a (Diesel-Electric Road) units #0700–#0709 had the original design with a mass of vents on the roof, while the DER-1b (#0710–#0749) and DER-1c (#0750–#0759) had the simplified winterization hatches instead. The New Haven DL-109s could be found hauling passenger trains during the day and freight trains at night. The class was rebuilt once, replacing the plywood sides, removing the decorative side windows in favor of a steel screen, and several other changes.
Two DL-109s received a special rebuild to make them able to "MU" (multiple unit) with more than one other unit; originally they only had the MU cables on the rear meaning that only a back-to-back pair could be made. The two special units had cables put on the front so they could be used to make a 3-unit set for longer trains. One of the units had the nose rebuilt with an access door, raising the headlight and changing the contour of the nose.
The DL-109s eventually ran their last miles in the late 1950s in local commuter service around Boston. One special unit was retained through the 1960s in Boston as a power plant; PP-716 was converted to produce power for a test third rail
Third rail
A third rail is a method of providing electric power to a railway train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway track. It is used typically in a mass transit or rapid transit system, which has alignments in its own corridors, fully or almost...
in Boston. Eventually PP-716 became the last DL-109 on the face of the Earth and fell to the scrappers torch under the Penn Central
Penn Central Transportation
The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American railroad company that operated from 1968 until 1976. It was created by the merger on February 1, 1968, of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central Railroad...
at Dover St. Yard, in June 1969.
The other railroad's DL-109s were primarily scrapped during the 1950s. The Rock Island had rival builder EMD repower their newest, the #621, but this doesn't seem to have extended its career greatly. One notable pair on the Milwaukee Road lived charmed lives. Units #14A, B were delivered in October 1941, and paired up to run the Chicago-Minneapolis Afternoon Hiawatha and overnight Fast Mail back to Chicago. The units, along with EMD E6
EMD E6
The EMD E6 was a , A1A-A1A, passenger train locomotive manufactured by Electro-Motive Corporation, and its corporate successor, General Motors Electro-Motive Division, of La Grange, Illinois. The cab version, or E6A, was manufactured from November, 1939 to September, 1942, and 91 were produced...
#15A, B performed wonderfully during World War II with consists of Hiawathas expanding up to 20 cars and standing room only. The paint scheme was designed by Otto Kuhler
Otto Kuhler
Otto Kuhler was an American designer, one of the best known industrial designers of the American railroads. According to Trains magazine he streamstyled more locomotives and railroad cars than Cret, Dreyfuss and Loewy combined...
, who had designed most of the 1938 Hiawatha
Hiawatha (passenger train)
The Hiawathas were named passenger trains operated by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad , and traveled from Chicago to the Twin Cities in Minnesota. The original train takes its name from The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow...
and Milwaukee Road class F7
Milwaukee Road class F7
The Milwaukee Road's class F7 comprised six high-speed, streamlined 4-6-4 "Baltic" or "Hudson" type steam locomotives built by ALCO in 1937–38 to haul the Milwaukee's Hiawatha express passenger trains...
'Baltic' or 'Hudson' 4-6-4
4-6-4
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-6-4 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles , six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and four trailing wheels on two axles .Other equivalent classifications are:UIC classification:...
locomotives. It had a yellow stripe up the nose and torpedo flank orange belts on the mostly grey body. This scheme did not last, and it was painted to resemble the other passenger unit EMD E6, #15A, B with the lightning bolt/grey scheme. After the War, they were repainted into the FM Erie-built
FM Erie-built
The Erie-built was the first streamlined, cab-equipped dual service diesel locomotive built by Fairbanks-Morse, introduced as direct competition to such models as the ALCO PA and EMD E-unit...
locomotive scheme, and then in 1950, the Hiawatha orange-maroon band with black roof scheme.
The units on the Milwaukee logged over 3 million miles by 1953, and were overhauled. The motors and prime movers were sent to Alco for rebuilding, and the shopmen at the Milwaukee's in Milwaukee rebuilt the locomotives. They came out of the shops with facelifts, which the addition of EMD bulldog noses, and changed appearance which made them look like an EMD locomotive. The units then worked on secondary lines to Canton, South Dakota
Canton, South Dakota
Canton is a city in and the county seat of Lincoln County, South Dakota, United States. The city was named by Norwegian settler and former legislator James M. Wahl...
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay is a city in and the county seat of Brown County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, located at the head of Green Bay, a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It has an elevation of above sea level and is located north of Milwaukee. As of the 2010 United States Census,...
and Madison-Chicago trains until retirement; #14B was finally scrapped at Jones Island in Milwaukee in May 1964. The Milwaukee employees called #14A "Old Maude."
A units (cabs)
| Railroad | Quantity | Road numbers | Model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often abbreviated as Santa Fe, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The company was first chartered in February 1859... |
1 | 50 | DL-107 |
| Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad The Milwaukee Road, officially the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwest and Northwest of the United States from 1847 until its merger into the Soo Line Railroad on January 1, 1986. The company went through several official names... |
2 | 14A, 14B | DL-107 |
| Chicago and North Western Railway Chicago and North Western Railway The Chicago and North Western Transportation Company was a Class I railroad in the Midwest United States. It was also known as the North Western. The railroad operated more than of track as of the turn of the 20th century, and over of track in seven states before retrenchment in the late 1970s... |
1 | 5007A | DL-107 |
| Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was also known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, The Rock.-Incorporation:... |
1 | 624 | DL-103b |
| Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was also known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, The Rock.-Incorporation:... |
1 | 622 | DL-105 |
| Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was also known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, The Rock.-Incorporation:... |
2 | 621, 623 | DL-107 |
| Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad The Gulf, Mobile and Ohio was a Class I railroad in the central United States whose primary routes extended from Mobile, Alabama, and New Orleans, Louisiana, to St... |
2 | 270, 271 | DL-105 |
| Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad The Gulf, Mobile and Ohio was a Class I railroad in the central United States whose primary routes extended from Mobile, Alabama, and New Orleans, Louisiana, to St... |
1 | 272 | DL-109 |
| New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , was a railroad that operated in the northeast United States from 1872 to 1968 which served the states of Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts... |
60 | 0700–0759 | DL-109 |
| Southern Railway | 2 | 6400, 6401 | DL-107 |
| Southern Railway | 1 | 2904 | DL-109 |
B units (cabless boosters)
| Railroad | Quantity | Road numbers | Model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often abbreviated as Santa Fe, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The company was first chartered in February 1859... |
1 | 50A | DL-108 |
| Southern Railway | 2 | 6425, 6426 | DL-108 |
| Southern Railway | 1 | 2954 | DL-110 |
External links
- Otto Kuhler's design patent
- Alco DL109/110 Roster
- ALCO DL-109 Pictures from railfan.net
- ALCO DL-109: The Original Exotic Cab Unit article by Richard Biegaj.