Looking for an ALco?

JohnC · **Joined:** Tue Jul 18, 2006 12:20 pm **Posts:** 217

I was not saying that anyone was making 244 parts...Just pointing out that parts CAN be found used as there are still 2nd hand parts around.

JohnC · **Joined:** Tue Jul 18, 2006 12:20 pm **Posts:** 217

Alexander D. Mitchell IV wrote:

I'm trying to picture in my head the mechanical officer of a certain short line or dozen of which I have been acquainted--any short line with some serious traffic needs or a serious train-load customer or two, for example, not a shoe-string operation held together with chewing gum and chicken wire like many of the short lines of yore--going to the boss and trying to justify shipping in a container-load of parts from India to keep the locomotives chugging along to the junction..........

And unless the boss has a soft spot for a particular brand of loco, I'm picturing an order for more recent domestic locomotives off the used market instead.

Is there a bumper sticker for "I'd Rather Push an Alco Than Run an EMD"?

This is not to say that there can't be a useful economic market for an older locomotive. Aren't there still a couple Alco HH-series switchers at work for Relco grain-mill switching?

First, there are plenty of 539 parts out there both used and reconditioned. A HH660 can use the same parts as an S-1.
second; MOST 251 parts are available right here in the Good Old USA. FM/ALCO makes them Brand New.
Third, There are still a fair number of locomotives that can be had for parts sources if they cannot be made to operate economically.

arjay3 · **Joined:** Fri Jul 22, 2005 9:50 pm **Posts:** 162

JohnC wrote:

I was not saying that anyone was making 244 parts...Just pointing out that parts CAN be found used as there are still 2nd hand parts around.

To obtain 244 mechanical parts today you either need to have another 244 you can canabalize or have a stash of parts in inventory.
Metal (aluminum) thieves stole the cylinder covers from our 244 - if you know where these can be obtained without stripping another engine please let me know.
The few non-tourist railroads still operating the 244 have a supply of parts. Cylinder liners, water jackets and heads are in finite supply. Someone needs to find out what the Lake States has in their parts inventory and not let them go to the metal dumpster.

Yes, with the right mechanic both the 244 and the 251 are fine running engines but parts are being made for the 251 and not for the 244.

JohnC · **Joined:** Tue Jul 18, 2006 12:20 pm **Posts:** 217

arjay3 wrote:

JohnC wrote:

I was not saying that anyone was making 244 parts...Just pointing out that parts CAN be found used as there are still 2nd hand parts around.

To obtain 244 mechanical parts today you either need to have another 244 you can canabalize or have a stash of parts in inventory.
Metal (aluminum) thieves stole the cylinder covers from our 244 - if you know where these can be obtained without stripping another engine please let me know.
The few non-tourist railroads still operating the 244 have a supply of parts. Cylinder liners, water jackets and heads are in finite supply. Someone needs to find out what the Lake States has in their parts inventory and not let them go to the metal dumpster.

Yes, with the right mechanic both the 244 and the 251 are fine running engines but parts are being made for the 251 and not for the 244.

Both Lake State and the DL would be my first choices for parts. The DL MAY have some covers from a junk prime mover they recently removed from a RS-3.
I agree that its better to keep the 244 engine intact whenever possible.
There are many RS-3's, MRS-1's still around so like I said, its knowing where to find the parts.

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Thu Dec 23, 2010 7:14 pm

It is certainly possible to keep a fleet of Alco/MLW locomotives running in regular revenue service in North America in 2010, as being demonstrated routinely by a very few railroads (Delaware-Lackawanna, Western NY and Pa., Apache, Grand Canyon, Napa Valley, and others). Heck, there are a couple die-hards keeping small fleets of even more obsolete Baldwins running.

I can also run a courier or taxi service running with Studebakers or Edsels, if I so choose, or AMC Gremlins or Renault Le Cars. Or run a transit system with PCC cars, or E8's and C&NW bilevels. But, eventually, it becomes more cost-effective to find equipment where the parts can be easily ordered or procured rather than having to scour untold junkyards looking for that one rumored surviving crankshaft, flywheel, or valve cover.

On the other hand, in the electronic age, these parts no longer just hide. I was in an auto parts store earlier this year when someone walked in seeking, of all things, the heater core to a 1972 Ford Ranchero. In three minutes it turned up on the shelf, NOS, in a radiator warehouse on the other side of the city, and was couriered in that afternoon. In 1988 I saw body shops work the phones for three days to find the right Honda wreck to cannibalize.

robertmacdowell · **Posted:** Fri Dec 24, 2010 1:24 am

Alexander D. Mitchell IV wrote:

I can also run a courier or taxi service running with Studebakers or Edsels, if I so choose, or AMC Gremlins or Renault Le Cars. Or run a transit system with PCC cars, or E8's and C&NW bilevels. But, eventually, it becomes more cost-effective to find equipment where the parts can be easily ordered or procured rather than having to scour untold junkyards looking for that one rumored surviving crankshaft, flywheel, or valve cover.

Greenfield Village at The Henry Ford Museum operates a fleet of Model T automobiles to transport guests around the park. This blows my standard pro-railway-museum rant about how other modes' vehicles are too fragile for daily operational museum service.

They appear to have sliced through the Gordian knot of maintenance by simply obtaining new production from the original manufacturer. I have my doubts as to whether they meet OBDII smog requirements for their model year.

As for a transit system with PCC cars, San Francisco does precisely that. And believe me, if there was a way they could slough off their "Hell underground" and put the whole fleet back to PCCs, they'd do it in a heartbeat. No matter what your worst nightmare is of drying up parts sources... procuring and maintaining modern LRV's is WORSE.