The Baldwin AS-616 was a diesel-electric locomotive of the road switcher

Road switcher

A road switcher is a type of railroad locomotive used for delivering or picking up cars outside of a railroad yard. Since the road switcher must work some distance away from a yard, it needs to be able to operate at road speeds, it must also have high-visibility while it is switching, and it must...

 type rated at 1600 hp, that rode on three-axle trucks

Bogie

A bogie is a wheeled wagon or trolley. In mechanics terms, a bogie is a chassis or framework carrying wheels, attached to a vehicle. It can be fixed in place, as on a cargo truck, mounted on a swivel, as on a railway carriage/car or locomotive, or sprung as in the suspension of a caterpillar...

, having a C-C wheel arrangement.

Nineteen railroads bought 214 locomotives, and two railroads bought seven cabless 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.

Used in much the same manner as its four-axle counterpart, the Baldwin AS-16, though the six-motor design allowed better tractive effort

Tractive effort

As used in mechanical engineering, the term tractive force is the pulling or pushing force exerted by a vehicle on another vehicle or object. The term tractive effort is synonymous with tractive force, and is often used in railway engineering to describe the pulling or pushing capability of a...

 at lower speeds.

Original owners

Railroad	Quantity	Road Numbers	Notes
Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton (demonstrators)	2	1600	to Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic Railway 211, to Soo Line 395
		1601	to Oregon and Northwestern Railroad Oregon and Northwestern Railroad The Oregon and Northwestern Railroad evolved from the defunct Malheur Railroad in 1928 and eventually ran between Hines, Oregon, and Seneca, along the present-day route of the U.S. 395 in Oregon...  1
Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad The Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad is a class II railroad that operates in northwestern Pennsylvania and northeastern Ohio.The railroad's main route runs from the Lake Erie port of Conneaut, Ohio to the Pittsburgh suburb of Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, a distance of 139 miles...	2	408, 409
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...	3	1560, 1561, 1604
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Chesapeake and Ohio Railway The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P...	39	5528–5529, 5533–5569
Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway The Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway was an American railroad serving the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and the Lake Superior shoreline of Wisconsin. It provided service from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and St. Ignace, Michigan, westward through Marquette, Michigan to Superior, Wisconsin,...	7	204–210	to Soo Line Railroad Soo Line Railroad The Soo Line Railroad is the primary United States railroad subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway , controlled through the Soo Line Corporation, and one of seven U.S. Class I railroads. Although it is named for the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste...  388–394
Houston Belt and Terminal Railway	1	32
Kaiser Steel Kaiser Steel Kaiser Ventures is an American corporation, headquartered in Ontario, California. It was founded by Henry J. Kaiser to provide steel plate for the Pacific Coast shipbuilding industry, which expanded during World War II, then shrank, then expanded again during the Korean War...	2	1012A, 1012B
Milwaukee Road	6	2100–2101, 2104–2107
Milwaukee Road	2	2100B, 2101B	B units - rebuilt with cabs and renumbered 2102, 2103 c.1953
Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México, was Mexico's state owned railroad company from 1938 to 1998, and prior to 1938 a major railroad controlled by the government that linked Mexico City to the major cities of Nuevo Laredo and Ciudad Juárez on the U.S. border...	20	6800–6819
Orinoco Mining Company, Venezuela (U.S. Steel U.S. Steel The United States Steel Corporation , more commonly known as U.S. Steel, is an integrated steel producer with major production operations in the United States, Canada, and Central Europe. The company is the world's tenth largest steel producer ranked by sales... )	9	1001–1009
Pennsylvania Railroad Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....	12	8966–8974, 8111, 8112, 8114 (ex-PWV)	renumbered 6966–6977
Pittsburgh & West Virginia Railway	1	40	to PRR in 1960
Southern Pacific Company (Texas and New Orleans Railroad Texas and New Orleans Railroad The Texas and New Orleans Railroad is a former railroad in Texas and Louisiana. At one point the company was the largest railroad in Texas, with of trackage in 1934, but by 1961 there were only remaining when it was merged with parent company Southern Pacific.... )	8	177–184
Southern Pacific Company	51	5228–5278
Southern Pacific Company	5	5501–5505	B units - renumbered 4901–4905
Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company The Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company , also known as TCI and the Tennessee Company, was a major American steel manufacturer with interests in coal and iron ore mining and railroad operations. Originally based entirely within Tennessee, it relocated most of its business to Alabama in the...	5	1502–1506
Trona Railway Trona Railway The Trona Railway is a shortline railroad owned by Searles Valley Minerals.The TRC interchanges with the Union Pacific Railroad at Searles, California....	1	52
Union Pacific Railroad Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....	6	1260–1265
Union Railroad Union Railroad (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) The Union Railroad is a Class III switching railroad located in Allegheny County in Western Pennsylvania. The company is owned by Transtar, Inc., which is itself a subsidiary of USS Corp, more popularly known as United States Steel...	3	625–627
Estrada de Ferro Central do Brasil Estrada de Ferro Central do Brasil The Estrada de Ferro Central do Brasil was one of the principal railways of Brazil, uniting the states of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Minas Gerais.-Origins:...	12	3371–3382	5 ft 3 in gauge
Estrada de Ferro Central do Brasil	20	4371–4390	metre gauge
Rede de Viação Paraná-Santa Catarina (Brazil)	5	60–64
Total	214	A unit A unit An A unit, in railroad terminology, is a locomotive equipped with a driving cab, or crew compartment, and the control system to control other locomotives in a multiple unit, and therefore able to be the lead unit in a consist of several locomotives controlled from a single position... s
	7	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