Att: Preston Cook

Hi

In 1946 Ingalls Iron Works manufactured a diesel locomotive in which they used a Superior 65-LX-6 engine, although a photo (of plate only) builders plate show engine model D-Type 1840, 12x15 Serial # 11771. 600 rpm There seems at this point a contradiction of it, is it 6 cylinder or 8 cylinder?

I am looking for any information on this series of engines. Would like to locate any manuals, specifications, photos, sound recordings, etc. lnfo required just to get a good history of the loco and its use. Used until 1966 and traded to EMD, and later scrapped at Pielet Bros scrap yard. It is not known if the motor was saved by EMD before handing on to Pielet Bros.

Have tried all the railroad related sources with no success. I believe Mississippi Marine Museum is hoping to set up a display on the Ingalls loco sometime in the future.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Charles Harris
New Zealand

I'm sure you have seen these already, about Superior Engine, but:

http://www.gasenginemagazine.com/compan ... geContent2

http://www.oocities.org/wbd641/SuperiorDiesels.html

The company changed hands several times, was part of White Consolidated (which coincidentally put my grandfather out of work when they bought the Minneapolis-Moline Tractor Co. in the late 1950s) and it looks like it is now part of Cooper Bessemer, which makes industrial diesel engines, including the diesels in U-series GE locomotives through the 1970s. You might try them.

I'm quite sure that GE has made their own engines from the U25B onward, having bought C-B's FDL design. I do not know if any further royalties were paid.

The Ingalls locomotive got traded in to EMD a couple years before I started working there. My understanding is that the only parts that might have been saved were the trucks. I was told that the engine was a 6-cylinder. I doubt that anybody there nowadays even remembers it, the event was fifty years ago. Anybody who saw it at EMD, and was in their 30s then, would be in their 80s now, and retired for many years.

There is a 1940s Superior ad that shows a 12.5x15 6-cylinder diesel engine at the Municipal Power Company in Sandersville, Georgia. No idea whether that engine might still exist, but there are a few very ancient diesels sitting out-of-service in power companies around the US. Nebraska and Kansas are also good places to look for old diesels in power companies.

There was also a very large Superior Diesel for sale on eBay a few years ago. It was listed multiple times and did not sell, so it probably was scrapped.

PC