The ALCO PA was a family of A1A-A1A

diesel locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover (locomotive), power source is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is con ...

s built to haul

passenger train A passenger train is a train used to transport people along a railroad line, as opposed to a freight train that carries goods. These trains may consist of unpowered passenger railroad cars (also known as coaches or carriages) push-pull train, ...

s. The locomotives were built in

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 ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, by a partnership of the

American Locomotive Company 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 ...

(ALCO) and

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

(GE) between June, 1946 and December, 1953. Designed by General Electric's Ray Patten (along with their ALCO FA cousins), they were of a cab unit design; both cab-equipped lead

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 ...

PA and cabless booster B unit PB models were built. While externally the PB models were slightly shorter than the PA model, they shared many of the same characteristics, both aesthetically and mechanically. However, they were not as reliable as

EMD E-unit EMD E-units were a line of passenger train streamliner diesel locomotives built by the Electro-Motive Diesel, General Motors Electro-Motive Division (EMD) and its predecessor the Electro-Motive Corporation (EMC). Final assembly for all E-units ...

s. ALCO's designation of P indicates that they were geared for higher speeds and passenger use, whereas the F designation marks these locomotives as being geared primarily for freight use. However, beyond this, their design was largely similar - aside from the PA/PB's both being larger A1A-A1A types with an even more striking nose - and many railroads used PA and FA locomotives for both freight and passenger service. Although the majority of the PAs and PBs have been scrapped, six examples have survived. Five PAs are now preserved in railroad museums, while a converted PB still remains in service as a power car.

Service history

ATSF 58 WB Port Chicago Mar68smcr - Flickr - drewj1946

There were two models of PAs: the PA-1/PB-1, which was built between September 1946 and June 1950, and the PA-2/PB-2, which was built between April, 1950 and December, 1953. The PAs, as well as their cousins, the ALCO FAs, were born as a result of ALCO's development of a new diesel engine design, the Model 244. In early 1944, development started on the new design, and by November 1945 the first engines were beginning to undergo tests. This unusually-short testing sequence was brought about by the decision of ALCO's senior management that the engine and an associated line of road locomotives had to be introduced no later than the end of 1946. In preparation for this deadline, by January, 1946, the first 16-cylinder 244 engines were being tested, and, while a strike delayed work on the locomotives, the first two PA units were released for road tests in June, 1946 for testing for one month on the Lehigh Valley Railroad. After these first tests were completed, the locomotives returned to the factory for refurbishment and engine replacement. In September, 1946, the first production units, an A-B-A set of PA1s in Santa Fe colors, numbered #51L, 51A and 51B, were released from the factory and sent to New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, which had a private railroad siding, for exhibition before being launched into road service. This set was repowered in August, 1954 with EMD 16-567C engines rated at . This EMD repowering of the PAs was economically unfeasible, and the remaining Santa Fe PAs retained their 244 engines. Four PA-1s previously operated by the Santa Fe were sold to

Delaware and Hudson Railway The Delaware and Hudson Railway (D&H) is a railroad that operates in the Northeastern United States. In 1991, after more than 150 years as an independent railroad, the D&H was purchased by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). CP, which would it ...

in 1967. In 1974-1975, they were rebuilt for the D&H as PA-4s by Morrison Knudsen and equipped with ALCO's 251 V-12 engines. Under D&H ownership, they were used by Amtrak for the '' Adirondack''. (Amtrak itself only purchased EMD E- and F-units from the railroads whose service it replaced for its diesel roster, and never owned any PAs.) They were used by the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority in the late 1970s, then by Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México in 1978–81. Fans deemed the PA one of the most beautiful diesels and an "Honorary Steam Locomotive", as noted by Professor George W. Hilton in a book review in September, 1968 ''

Trains Magazine ''Trains'' is a monthly magazine about trains and railroads aimed at railroad enthusiasts and railroad industry employees. The magazine primarily covers railroad happenings in the United States and Canada, but has some articles on railroading e ...

''. When accelerating, until the turbocharger came up to speed, thick clouds of black smoke would pour from the exhaust stacks due to

turbo lag In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (also known as a turbo or a turbosupercharger) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake air, forcing more air into th ...

. Photographing a moving PA while smoking became a prime objective of railfans.“Honorary steam locomotive” at ''Trains Magazine''
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Original owners

Foreign sales

The PA-2 units sold to the

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , more known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union countries ...

Companhia Paulista de Estradas de Ferro of São Paulo State in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

were equipped with a bar

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

and solid horizontal steel pilot beam. One of these locomotives survives.

Surviving examples

Five PA units and one converted PB unit survive. *One surviving unit, #600, is from the order of three broad gauge units sold to Companhia Paulista de Estradas de Ferro in Brazil. It exists at the Companhia Paulista Museum at Jundiai,

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

as a shell with no prime mover and no side panels. A restoration began in 2001 but has not been completed. *All four Delaware & Hudson-operated PA-4s have survived, with two being in the United States, and the other two in Mexico. **From 1981 to 2000, No.16 and No.18 remained stored in Empalme,

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into Municipalities of Sonora, 72 ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. In 2000, the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

and rail preservationist Doyle McCormack obtained the units and brought them back to the United States. ***No.16, which was heavily damaged in a derailment while in Mexico, was planned to be cosmetically restored into its original " Warbonnet" colors for the

. The unit was acquired by the Museum of the American Railroad in 2011 and transported to the museum's new site in Frisco, Texas. Since then, it has been under restoration, with plans to return it to its original Warbonnet appearance and original number of ATSF 59L. ***No.18 was owned by Doyle McCormack and has been undergoing restoration since 2002. It has been restored as Nickel Plate Road 190, a recreation of the first locomotive McCormack got to ride. The locomotive was moved to the Oregon Rail Heritage Center, in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

in 2012, where restoration work continued to take place. In March 2023, it was announced that the Genesee Valley Transportation Company would purchase the locomotive, with plans to restore it to operation for excursion use. It arrived in Scranton, Pennsylvania in May 2023. **No.17 and No.19 are preserved at the National Museum of Mexican Railways in

Puebla Puebla, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Puebla, is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its capital is Puebla City. Part of east-centr ...

. Unit DH-17 (former D&H #17) was painted in the classic Southern Pacific

Daylight Daylight is the combination of all direct and indirect sunlight during the daytime. This includes direct sunlight, diffuse sky radiation, and (often) both of these reflected by Earth and terrestrial objects, like landforms and buildings. Sunlig ...

colors, but as of February 2010 had been painted over in primer. *Ex-Denver and Rio Grande PB-1 6002 was converted to a steam generator car in October 1965; it gained Blomberg B trucks in 1980. It was sold to

Ansco Ansco was the brand name of a photography, photographic company based in Binghamton, New York, which produced photographic films, photographic paper, papers and cameras from the mid-19th century until the 1980s. In the late 1880s, Ansco's pred ...

in late 1987 for service on the Ski Train, and later sold again in 2007 to the

Algoma Central Railway The Algoma Central Railway is a railway in Northern Ontario, Canada, that operates between Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Sault Ste. Marie and Hearst, Ontario, Hearst. It used to have a branch line to Wawa, Ontario, Wawa. The area served by th ...

References

Additional Reading

* Aslaksen, James and McCormack, Doyle.
NKP190.com
'. Retrieved on March 26, 2005. * * * * * Stumpf, Rolf.

'. Retrieved on March 26, 2005. * The Santa Fe Diesel Volume One: Dieselization - 1960 by Dr. Cinthia Priest pages 52–56. * http://utahrails.net/ajkristopans/REPOWEREDLOCOMOTIVES.php see EMD order #8506 dated August 1954 for repowering data on the AT&SF 51 set of PAs.

External links

America's PA project

DH-17 and DH-19
at the National Museum of Mexican Railroads website. {{ALCO diesels A1A-A1A locomotives PA Schenectady, New York Passenger locomotives Diesel–electric locomotives of the United States Diesel–electric locomotives of Brazil Railway locomotives introduced in 1946 Locomotives with cabless variants Standard-gauge locomotives of the United States Standard-gauge locomotives of Mexico Broad gauge locomotives in Brazil Diesel–electric locomotives of Mexico Streamlined diesel locomotives Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway locomotives Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad locomotives Erie Railroad locomotives New York Central Railroad locomotives New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad locomotives Nickel Plate Road locomotives Pennsylvania Railroad locomotives Southern Pacific Railroad locomotives Diesel locomotives of Southern Railway (U.S.) Union Pacific Railroad locomotives