Superior Diesels for Locomotive Service, page two. This brochure includes, on a later page, a collage of four units employing Superior locomotive diesel engines. We have cropped them out, and enlarged them, for discussion. |
The top left illustration is seen here. This is American Aggregates 638, which is a rather unusual looking box-cab type locomotive. The unit is odd looking because it was originally built as an interurban freight motor, and was owned by the Cincinnati & Lake Erie. The unit was sold to American Aggregates, who converted it from using external (trolley wire) power to internal diesel-electric power. Many other such conversions were done by American Aggregates on former interurban freight motors; this is the only one even suggested anywhere to have been equipped with a Superior engine. No details at all are given in the collage, but one would suspect that a six-cylinder Model 40 were employed, likely the 40-L-6. |
The top right illustration is seen here. This is Chiriqui Land Company No. 6, which was a small box-cab built by General Electric, and which originally included a Winton / EMC 201 series diesel engine. The author can find no details, but it is obvious that this unit, by inclusion in this brochure, was later repowered with a Superior engine. |
The center illustration is actually quite large, and instead of enlarging it we have reduced it here. The unit is very simply lettered "No. 1" on its cab side. This unit is almost certainly a General Electric locomotive, likely around 110 tons. As with the other units pictured, no specifications are given. However, we might easily suspect that this unit was built with Superior engines as original equipment. |
The last unit pictured is this intriguing little locomotive crane. |
Of course, as we have seen, the subject of the cover illustration for the brochure is the Ingalls Shipbuilding Company's Model 4-S diesel-electric road locomotive. This locomotive was constructed by Ingalls in the first quarter of 1946, well after the company originally announced a line of new diesel-electric locomotives, and was sent on a tour both for the purpose of testing, and to demonstrate the unit's capabilities. None of the railroads made moves to order Ingalls locomotives, and the 4-S was rather quickly sold to the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio. The unit had originally worn an Ingalls demonstrator paint scheme and had been assigned road number 1500. It was repainted for the GM&O in the two-tone red/maroon and given road number 1900. It spent the best part of the next two decades in service for that road, and was traded in to Electro-Motive in the early 1960's and scrapped. |
Ingalls Shipbuilding Company 4-S builder's photo from North East Rails; used by permission. |
It is clear from the brochure that Superior continued to try to become a major supplier in the field of locomotive diesel engines following termination of the Ingalls locomotive program. The Ingalls program would have been a promising outlet for Superior; the coming dieselization was accepted in all but the most stubborn minds, and the Ingalls line as planned was competitive with the lines intended to be offered by the major locomotive builders. All of the Ingalls models were to be powered by Superior diesel engines of various sizes and ratings. Termination of the program resulted, among other things, in the sale of Ingalls 1500 (the 4-S, which was the only unit constructed) to the GM&O. Since the 4-S is already painted for that road as depicted on the brochure's cover, we can be sure that Superior still felt that it could become a supplier of diesel engines for domestic locomotives even after losing Ingalls as a prime contractor. The reality was much leaner. Superior never built another diesel engine for a true road locomotive for domestic use, although it did end up providing engines for a group of export road units. A working relationship developed between Superior, and the Whitcomb Locomotive Works of Rochelle, Illinois. The two companies worked with Westinghouse on export locomotives, and a major sale was made in 1949 when the General Belgrano Railways of Argentina ordered 75 end-cab road units from the group. These were powered by Superior Model 40 engines, and each unit was rated 675 horsepower. Whitcomb had also developed a center-cab unit with light axle loading, for export outside the US. The first sale of these units was to EFS/ Sorocabana of Brazil, which took 15 94-ton C-C units (numbered in the 3300 class) powered by two Superior Model 40 engines; the units were rated 1300 HP for traction. In 1952, a group of 12 units (class 104 DE2) were built for Caminhos de Ferros Portugueses, the largest rail carrier in Portugal. These units rode an A1A-A1A wheel arrangement, and were equipped with two Superior Model 40-LX-6 engines. The units were rated 1350 HP for traction, and Westinghouse electrical equipment was installed. These units weighed approximately 212,000 lbs in working order. Around the same time, a smaller batch of similar units (perhaps only 6) was built by Whitcomb for the Dakar-Niger Railway. |
In July 1946, RAILROAD Magazine announced the testing of the Ingalls 4-S. By the time of the issue's deadline, the 4-S had already demonstrated on GM&O, L&N, Seaboard and Southern (all Class I roads) and also had operated on the small Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co. The brief article also notes the ability of the 4-S to operate in multiple, with up to four units, and noted that the unit had performed in road service, transfer service and switching service. The visibility allowed by the unique cab style was said to accomodate switching and transfer service. The unit also had a vestibule-type rear end, visible in the shot below, which made crew boarding safer. As we now know, right about the time of this issue, the program was dropped and the unit sold to GM&O. |
Above, one of the units built for Argentina is unloaded from a ship. Right, the Superior Model 40 engine in six-cylinder turbocharged form. This engine powered all 108 export locomotives just discussed, requiring a total of 141 Model 40 engines for locomotive use during 1949-1952. |
Although the brochure offers the larger Model 65 engine for locomotive service, none was built for this purpose following the Ingalls unit. The Model 65 had been uprated from the application in the 4-S; in that unit, the Model 65-LX-6 had an upper speed limit of 660 RPM which correlated to 1500 brake horsepower. Postwar development led to a higher speed of 700 RPM, at which 1600 brake horsepower could be attained. This was directly competitive with the offerings of Electro-Motive, ALCO-GE and Baldwin in road freight units. The eight-cylinder Model 65 was also competitive with the ten-cylinder Fairbanks-Morse, and the sixteen-cylinder ALCO-GE engines in rating. However, the domestic market was saturated, and these high power outputs were not required in export locomotives -- and so Superior enjoyed only this brief flurry of export locomotive engine sales, until Whitcomb (and its owner, Baldwin) began to make moves to exit the market. |
Click 'next' to see shots of units which employed Superior engines, including the Ingalls 4-S as GM&O 1900 (photographed by J. Parker Lamb.) |