One of the women that I work with purchased a box of photos at a yard sale for ten dollars. She knows I like trains, she brought this one in for me to see. Did a quick Google search and found that this engine was part of the last group of engines built by Alco for the US. Hand written on the back of the photo was, "All department heads ALCO." I understand why this photo was taken with all the department heads. This engine 9406 was the last of the last.
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I'm looking at a photo of the exact same engine setting as your picture, but with a group of shop employees standing where the "suits" are. This is in the book, "The American Locomotive Company, A Centennial Remembrance", Richard Steinbrenner, 2003. Curious if Mr. Steinbrenner did not know of your picture, or if he purposefully choose the shop group instead.
That date was June 18, 1948, almost 69 years ago. It went to Pittsburgh & Lake Erie, a 2-8-4 A2a. It was ALCO's last steam engine built.
Very cool picture. Thanks for sharing.
I recall the tenders on the P&LE 2-8-4s may have for some reason been built by Lima Locomotive Works.
PAUL ROMANO posted:I recall the tenders on the P&LE 2-8-4s may have for some reason been built by Lima Locomotive Works.
I think Alco had already re-tasked their tender fabrication area for other purposes when the P&LE Berkshires were built. They knew the steam locomotive construction business was dead before these engines were built. The P&LE Berks had rectangular Alco builders plates on the smokebox and diamond-shaped Lima builders plates on the tenders!
I remember reading an article about (if I recall correctly) NYC Niagaras that were originally built with a silicon-carbon alloy that could develop corrosion cracks. Alco agreed to replace the boilers with carbon steel, but by this point in the late 1940's or early 50's, they had reorganized their shop and no longer had the manufacturing capability to build locomotive boilers (even for service). They contracted with a third-party company to fabricate the replacement boilers.
Scott Griggs
Louisville, KY
I would have thought that the engines and tenders might have been united by the railroad after delivery, owing to the fact that they came from two different manufacturers but here we have photographic evidence that the tenders were sent from Lima to ALCo and the locomotives were joined prior to leaving the Schenectady plant. You can clearly see the Lima diamond on the front upper corner of the tender.
Lima also constructed fifty 14 wheel PT-4 tenders assigned mainly, but not exclusively, to J-3 class Hudsons
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