I was pleased to see that the 60 ton OCC GE from American Steel Foundries at Alliance, OH has made it to preservation. Two identical locos at Carbon Limestone were not so lucky nor was Cheswick & Harmar RR #7.

There were 9 each of 45 ton and 60 ton OCC GEs, all built for various arms of the military or war production facilities during 1941-42. All were powered by Cooper-Bessemer engines, 6 cyl. in the 45 ton and 8 cyl. in the 60 ton.

Are any others of either model existing yet, either in commercial service or preservation?

Specific question: Koehring (sp?) Company at Mt. Gilead, OH had a nice condition 45 ton in use in the 1970s. Still around? If not, what became of it?

BTW, both Vulcan and Davenport built their versions of the 45 ton model to the same military specs and using the same engine, but Westinghouse electricals.

Don't know if this one still survives or not (not to mention the steam power that was still there, too!), but I got curious as to what such a unit looked like, and came across these, the only photos I could find:

http://thedieselshop.us/CarbonLimestone.HTML

http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/p ... cfp300.jpg

Caption information for this second unit:

Canadian Forest Products Ltd. (CANFOR) 300 ex 95 (acq. 10/55) GE 45 ton OCC #13166 10/1941 This unique Off Centre Cab unit was powered by a 340 HP Cooper-Bessemer diesel engine. Used on Vancouver Island at CANFOR's extensive non-common carrier (logging) railway. Shown here at Vancouver equipment dealer. March 1960 David M. More

Carbon Limestone had two of these and I'm quite certain both were scrapped. I'll check with the loco parts dealer who I believe parted them out. They used the same trucks and traction motors as the GE 65 ton center-cab, hence those were desirable parts.

The second photo is one of the 45 ton model, easily distinguished from the 60 ton by the lack of end platforms.

I was aware of the CanFor 45 tonner. Is it still around?

I did not know that the MVRHA's unit was so rare. Its complete, so with a moderate amount of work I think it will run again.

That's something... I know that the New Haven and BAR had some units that looked similar, but I just can't remember if they were GEs or not.

What is the model Cooper Bessemer engine in the 60 tonner? Were those engines used in any other GE models?

Just as a heads-up, the five I-R and five Cooper-Bessemer New Haven switchers were built for the NH 1936 as class DEY-1 and DEY-2; the five C-B units (DEY-2) were sold to BAR in 1951, the I-R locos to Republic Steel (0906-0909) and Atlantic Coal Co. (0910).

They are NOT the same as these offset cab locos (45 and 60 ton) seen here, built for the military during the Second World War. The NH locos had the radiator in the short hood, and the military ones had the radiator in the long hood as seen on #5 above.

The NH/BAR CB's were 8-cylinder 10 1/2 x 12, and I think the same engines were used in the wartime locos. Maybe Brother Rowlands can confirm by looking in the one at MVRHA?

The WWII military/defense 60 tonner OCCs used a Cooper Bessemer EN8. The 45 ton model (and Vulcans and Davenports built to the same MIL spec) used the EN6, same basic model with two fewer cylinders.

My source re the two 60 ton at Carbon Limestone is 99.9% sure both have been scrapped, one of them for certain at the CLCo plant and the other very likely while in the hands of a loco dealer in Columbus, OH. Both were scrapped for parts, mostly the trucks which were identical to those under a standard model 65 ton GE.

In the course of this discussion the question arose whether the 45 ton model had two or four traction motors. I think it's a safe bet that since all of the locos by any of the other builders (Davenport b/n 2371-2379, Vulcan b/n 4333-4338) used four traction motors, that the GEs, built to the same MIL Spec (T-1450) also had 4 motors. That would make those trucks unique among 45/50 ton GEs.

David, do you have any photos of our unit at ASF? I am sure we will repaint it with ASF lettering since that fits our mission more than it does as an Army unit.