EMC EA-6 Story & Drawing

Well, it's certainly impressive. I can't help with any other info, but I'd love to see more photos. VERY NICE !!

I'd love to see that run!  That's incredible.

The blueprints are for what most refer to as an EMD E6 A unit, although the blueprint has it listed as an EA-6, also very cool!!!

A Santa Fe version of the E6.

http://www.tcawestern.org/buddy.htm

down the page a bit

Dave,

You've got quite a unique and interesting piece there!  I think the TCA would be interested in seeing it and publishing photos in the TCA Collector's magazine for one of their features on these types of oddities.

I wanted to make a couple of comments about it that haven't been mentioned above in your thread....the livery appears to be vaguely based on the Rock Island Rocket crack train that ran from Chicago to Colorado Springs.  Like your piece, the Rock Island's engines that EMD built for that train were unique to the RIRR.  The locos were designated "TA" and "TB", I believe.  The "T" designation was for "Twelve Hundred Horsepower."  Here's the link to the Wikipedia article on these engines:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMC_TA

The train actually ran to Limon in Eastern Colorado, and then split into two sections with one going on to Denver and the other to Colorado Springs.  What was unique about the TA A-B set of engines was that the B unit actually had its own cab with windshield on one of its square ends and that TB engine was the one that pulled the head end section the rest of the way into Denver, while the true A unit which looked something like your one of a kind operating gas-electric engine, finished pulling the back end of the train into the Springs.  On the return trip to Chicago, the process was reversed in Limon where the two sections of the train were re-joined and the TB unit coupled back behind the TA unit to run "elephant style" on the trip eastbound.

Again, you have an incredibly interesting and noteworthy locomotive there and it would be fun to restore it to full operation on Buddy L track, perhaps with a set of "Brute-Scaled" passenger cars painted in the Rock Island Rocket's livery!  Now that would be something to see!

Impressedbear

Bearlead, you have the right idea, but let's get some facts straightened out:

• The unique Rocky Mountain Rocket diesels were Model AB6, and they were box shaped like an E6B, but with a cab and headlight/Mars light on one end, and the paint and end striping was styled after the A-units, unlike other Rock Island B-units.  They ran as the second unit of the two-unit consist from Chicago to Limon, keeping the streamlined look of the train intact, and, at Limon, the leading E6A cut away from it , the AB6 departed with the Colorado Springs section and the E6A continued with the Denver section.
• There were no TB's - only TA's.
• Rock Island E3's and E6's ran to Peoria, Kansas City, Dallas,, Houston, and other destinations besides Denver in the pre-war days, and, post-war, were used everywhere on the system, including Tucumcari, NM.

Just sayin' . . .

That's insane!  A little four cylinder engine and a distributor!  I might check out a model airplane/car club to see if someone can give you a hand with getting that thing going.  Thanks for a fascinating post.

Yes, there were power windows on cars in the 40's. Only the luxury and specialty cars had them. In the early 50's my dad had a late 40's Cadillac. My sister and I would run the electric windows so much it ran down the battery. Can't tell you how mad my Pop would get at us. I love home made trains. That's wonderful. Don

Tom,

Thanks for straightening me out on the AB6 Rocket B unit vs my erroneous post referring to the Rocket's B unit as a "TB".  I confess I was flying without a net there.  My memory-faulted knowledge about this unique set of locomotives came from two sources, a railfan movie/video on streamliners that showed the unique pair of Rock Island engines and the two sections of the train being split up at Limon and then later on the eastbound trip being reassembled for the trip back to Chicago.  The other source was a book which I believe is actually entitled Streamliners containing similar information.  

I don't want you to think my error resulted from intellectual laziness, however.  Since moving to the new house, none of the boxes containing my extensive collection of books and videos have been unpacked yet, so I had to "wing it" figuring someone like you might be able to straighten me out if I got it wrong.

You rose to the occasion, Tom, and thanks.

WingingItBear

I don't wing it as well as I used to either.  Don't feel like you're alone there. No demerits were assessed.

The model is a really interesting machine, though, and every day is a good day to remember the Rock Island, especially the Rocket era.

What a fascinating creation.  The builders made a miniature working version of the prototype.  It's actually much more realistic to the original concept than any of our electric engines.  Thank you for sharing it with us.