The ALCO DL-202-2 and DL-203-2

diesel-electric locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the power source is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving whee ...

(known informally as the Black Maria) was an experimental

freight In transportation, cargo refers to goods transported by land, water or air, while freight refers to its conveyance. In economics, freight refers to goods transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. The term cargo is also used in ...

locomotive produced by

ALCO The American Locomotive Company (often shortened to ALCO, ALCo or Alco) was an American manufacturer that operated from 1901 to 1969, initially specializing in the production of locomotives but later diversifying and fabricating at various time ...

Schenectady, New York Schenectady ( ) is a City (New York), city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the United States Census 2020, 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-most populo ...

. The primary diesel builders Alco, Baldwin and EMD pushed the

War Production Board The War Production Board (WPB) was an agency of the United States government that supervised war production during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt established it in January 1942, with Executive Order 9024. The WPB replaced the Su ...

(WPB) for more opportunities to build more diesels. The Transportation Equipment Division of the WPB announced a production schedule on December 10, 1943, that allowed Alco to build one 4500 horsepower experimental diesel locomotive. This experimental diesel locomotive was to be built in the fourth quarter of 1944. The two A units were built in January 1945 and the B unit at a later date in 1945. The two A units were put on test at Building No. 37 at Schenectady to work out problems with the connecting rods and turbocharger in the Alco 241 engine, developed by both McIntosh and Seymour and ALCo. The total production run included 2 cab DL202-2

A unit An A-unit, in railroad terminology, is a diesel locomotive (or more rarely an electric locomotive) equipped with a driving cab and a control system to control other locomotives in a multiple unit, and therefore able to be the lead unit in a c ...

s, and a single DL203-2 B (cabless booster) unit. The locomotives were powered by a V12 ALCO 241

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

, rated at . The units were released for test in September 1945. The locomotive could attain a top speed of (Freight) and (Passenger). With the B-B

wheel arrangement In rail transport, a wheel arrangement or wheel configuration is a system of classifying the way in which wheels are distributed under a locomotive. Several notations exist to describe the wheel assemblies of a locomotive by type, position, and c ...

and carbody construction, equipment layout and electrical gear these experimental units were the immediate predecessors of the FA units to come in early 1946. Outwardly, the bodies strongly resembled those on the DL-109, some of which were still under construction at Schenectady in early 1945. The three units were numbered 1500A, B, C and were tested on the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected New York metropolitan area, gr ...

, the

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, the

New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , commonly known as The Consolidated, or simply as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated principally in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to 1968. Founded by the merger of ...

, and the

Bangor and Aroostook Railroad The Bangor and Aroostook Railroad was a United States railroad company that brought rail service to Aroostook County, Maine, Aroostook County in northern Maine. Brightly-painted BAR boxcars attracted national attention in the 1950s. First-genera ...

, among others. As no orders materialized for such units, and no railroad bought the demonstrators, the set was scrapped in Schenectady New York September 1947.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Pre-FA (Black Maria) by W. A. Cuisinier (Preston Cook) Extra 2200 South Issue #34 pp. 17–18 includes line drawings and equipment layouts by Cuisinier. * * Chapter VII ALCO and World War II pp. 221–230.

External links

A picture of The Black Maria in service

Drawings of both the "A" and "B" units, plus additional information about them
* http://alcoworld.railfan.net/arf.htm {{ALCO diesels ALCO locomotives B-B locomotives Experimental locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1945 Locomotives with cabless variants Passenger locomotives Scrapped locomotives Standard-gauge locomotives of the United States Streamlined diesel locomotives