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59-558: RFAAP was established April 5, 1941 as Radford Ordnance Works and New River Plant. In 1945, the works was renamed Radford Arsenal and the New River Ordnance Works was assumed as a subpost until 1950, when it became an integral part of the Radford Arsenal. In 1961 the arsenal was renamed Radford Ordnance Plant and RFAAP in 1963. The facility used an ALCO MRS-1 military diesel locomotive, road number B2072, for switching, which

118-699: A consortium with General Electric (electrical equipment) and Ingersoll-Rand ( diesel engine ). This locomotive was sold to the Central Railroad of New Jersey . It built additional locomotives for the Long Island Rail Road and the Chicago and North Western Railway . The company bought the McIntosh & Seymour Diesel Engine Company in 1929 and henceforth produced its own diesel engines, though it always bought its electrical equipment from GE. The diesel program

177-579: A future, large-scale land war no longer included the capture and use of the enemy's railway system. Thus the 96 locomotives were redundant for their original purpose. Many of the units were taken out of storage and assigned to various military installations around the country, where locomotives of that size and power were required. The Army eventually decided to transfer the units to the United States Navy . Five units stationed in Concord, California were

236-473: A half-acre crater. In 1995, Alliant Techsystems , parent company ATK Armament Systems, obtained a "facilities use" contract. In 1999, RFAAP gained the load, assembly and pack mission with the closure of Joliet Army Ammunition Plant in Illinois. "Radford is capable of producing mass quantities of solvent and solventless propellants to support direct fire, indirect fire, and rocket applications." On May 12, 2011,

295-420: A healthy fleet of Alcos DL540 running commuter and cargo trains. The Glenbrook Vintage Railway New Zealand, has a 2-4-4-2 articulated compound mallet, built by Alco in 1912. Only four mallets with this wheel arrangement were ever built; the other three by Baldwin. This unique loco is currently out of service awaiting overhaul. During the 1970s, Romania's UCMR Resita made licensed engines from ALCo, putting

354-580: A new land war in Europe. They came up with a requirement for a locomotive capable of running on the existing tracks of a wide variety of railway systems. Key parts of the specification included adjustable- gauge trucks , compact bodywork to fit restrictive loading gauges , and replaceable couplers to fit a variety of systems. The trucks accepted wheelsets between standard gauge 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ( 1,435 mm ) and 5 ft 6 in ( 1,676 mm ), which encompasses

413-536: A prototype gas-turbine–electric locomotive to address the concerns of operators such as Union Pacific that sought to minimize the number of locomotive units needed for large power requirements. In 1949, ALCo embarked on a clean-sheet design project to replace the 244. 1949 also saw the introduction of the EMD GP7 road–switcher, a direct challenge in ALCo's bread-and-butter market. In 1953, General Electric , dissatisfied with

472-472: A small quantity of ALCO DL-109 dual-service engines and its proven steam designs, while EMD (formerly EMC) was allocated the construction of mainline road freight diesels (the production of straight passenger-service engines was prohibited by the War Production Board ). Still, ALCo ranked 34th among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. Alco's RS-1 road switcher

531-627: A step in the automotive career of Walter P. Chrysler , who worked as the plant manager. In 1911 he left Alco for Buick in Detroit, Michigan , where he subsequently founded the Chrysler Corporation in 1925. Alco made 60-ton center-cab electric freight motors from 1912 through the 1920s for electric railway lines in Oregon. Already a leader in steam locomotives , Alco produced the first commercially successful diesel–electric switch engine in 1924 in

590-731: A subsidiary of Nitram Energy. Following the sale of these assets, Smithco remained in business, manufacturing other heat exchange products. In 1985, the assets acquired from Smithco were assigned by Bos-Hatten to its parent, Nitram. In 2008, Nitram was acquired by Peerless Manufacturing Co In 2015, Peerless sold its heat exchanger business to Koch Heat Transfer Co. After the closure of Alco's Schenectady works, locomotives to Alco designs continued to be manufactured in Canada by Montreal Locomotive Works and in Australia by AE Goodwin . In addition, Until 2022, Alco-derived locomotives accounted for most of

649-514: A time. At some later point, some of the heat exchanger products were manufactured by the Alco Products Division of Smithco Engineering in Tulsa, Oklahoma (Smithco). In January 1983, certain assets of the Alco Products Division of Smithco, namely double-pipe and hairpin-type heat exchanger products sold under the "Alco Twin" name, mark and style, were sold in an asset sale by Smithco to Bos-Hatten,

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708-552: Is "located on the north bank of the New River in the Horseshoe Area, a section of the plant surrounded on three sides by the river". Rapid modernization is addressing this concern. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Army 37°11′02″N 80°32′41″W  /  37.18389°N 80.54472°W  / 37.18389; -80.54472 ALCO MRS-1 The ALCO MRS-1

767-696: Is a type of diesel-electric locomotive built by the American Locomotive Company for the United States Army Transportation Corps . They were built with multigauge trucks and to a reduced loading gauge for service anywhere in the world in the event of war. The Korean War and the intensification of the Cold War at the beginning of the 1950s caused the Army Transportation Corps to consider what it might need for

826-855: Is now being restored by the Railroad Heritage of Midwest America museum. Alco and MLW locomotives still work on many regional and tourist railroads across the United States and Canada, including the Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad in Scranton, Pennsylvania , the Catskill Mountain Railroad in Kingston ; the Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad family of lines based in Lakeville, New York ,

885-607: Is now occupied by a large industrial park. Alco diversified into areas other than automobiles with greater success. During World War II , Alco built munitions for the war effort, in addition to locomotive production; this continued throughout the Korean War . After the Korean War, Alco began making oil production equipment and heat exchangers for nuclear plants. In 1955, the company was renamed Alco Products, Incorporated. By this stage, locomotive production only accounted for 20% of

944-582: Is still manufactured by Fairbanks-Morse of Beloit, Wisconsin , a company which also manufactured diesel locomotives. Additionally, Alco diesel engines are used to power the NASA Crawler Transporter . Some Alcos survive on Australian networks, as well as in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Another fleet of Alco Bombardier locomotives run in rugged terrain on the Sri Lanka railway network. Argentina also has

1003-400: The 630 (the first AC/DC transmission), the 430 and the 636 , the first 3,600 horsepower (2.7 MW) locomotive, failed to keep the enterprise going. Third-place in the market proved to be an impossible position; ALCo products had neither the market position nor reputation for reliability of EMD's products, nor the financing muscle and customer support of GE. It could not earn enough profits. In

1062-827: The Arcade & Attica Railroad in Arcade, New York. It returned to service in May 2009 after a six-year overhaul to bring it into compliance with the FRA's new steam locomotive regulations. Great Western 60 , a 2-8-0 built in Schenectady in 1937, currently operates in passenger service on the Black River & Western Railroad in Ringoes, NJ. Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad in Garibaldi, Oregon . This railroad owns

1121-948: The Bluegrass Railroad and Museum , the Western Railway Museum , the Texas State Railroad , the National Museum of Transportation , the Northern Pacific Railway Museum , the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum , the Western Pacific Railroad Museum (one MRS-1 from the Western Pacific Railroad Museum was transferred to Yreka Western Railroad where it operated as YWRR #244, and later was scrapped in 2011),

1180-800: The California State Railroad Museum , and Railtown 1897 . In addition, the Eastern Shore Railroad (now Bay Coast Railroad ) had stored two for possible future use, but they are now reported as scrapped in 2011. Cass Scenic Railroad also stored 2 examples, which were sold as surplus and later scrapped in 2010. Being produced to the same specification, both GE/ALCO and EMD MRS-1s are very similar in appearance and can easily be mistaken; they are both C-C road switcher locomotives that are very low in profile in order to fit within European loading gauges. The major exterior differences are

1239-638: The Four Aces to No. 2626 and ran it on the North Coast Limited , as well as its pool trains between Seattle, Washington , and Portland, Oregon , and excursions, through 1957. During World War II, Alco produced many 2-10-0 Decapods for the USSR . Many went undelivered, and ten of these were sold to Finland in 1947. One, Alco builder's No. 75214, is preserved at the Finnish Railway Museum . Though

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1298-737: The Hellenic Railways Organisation (OSE) in Greece. The oldest of them (class A.201, DL532B) were delivered to the former Hellenic State Railways (SEK) in 1962. In addition to a variety of standard gauge locomotives, the fleet includes 11 metre gauge Alco locomotives, mainly used for departmental trains in the Peloponnese network. The MX627 and MX636 locomotives have been extensively rebuilt at Piraeus Central Factory of OSE. The remaining Alco locomotives are also being rebuilt, starting with models DL532B and DL537. The ALCO 251 diesel engine

1357-527: The McCloud Railway 25 . One of only 4 prairie type (2-6-2) locomotives ever built by ALCO. This locomotive is operational, and is used in daily service six months of the year and weekend service an additional four months of the year. This locomotive appeared in the film " Stand by Me ". While regular production of steam locomotives by Alco ended in the 1950s, Alco-built steam engines have been preserved in locations across North America. They can be found on

1416-749: The New York Central Railroad , the Union Pacific Railroad and the Milwaukee Road . Among Alco's better-known steam locomotives were the 4-6-4 Hudson , 4-8-2 Mohawk , and the 4-8-4 Niagara built for the New York Central; and the 4-8-4 FEF and the 4-6-6-4 Challenger built for the Union Pacific. Alco built many of the biggest locomotives ever constructed, including Union Pacific's Big Boy ( 4-8-8-4 ). Alco also built

1475-464: The RS-1 , the first road–switcher locomotive. The versatile road–switcher design gained favor for short-haul applications, which would provide ALCo a secure market niche through the 1940s. The entry of the United States into World War II froze ALCo's development of road diesel locomotives. During that time, ALCo was allocated the construction of diesel switching locomotives, their new road–switcher locomotives,

1534-556: The Schenectady Locomotive Engine Manufactory of Schenectady, New York : The consolidation of the seven manufacturers was the brainchild of financier Pliny Fisk Sr. of the brokerage house Harvey Fisk & Sons. The consolidated ALCO was intended to compete with Baldwin Locomotive Co. which controlled two-fifths of the industry. The new company was headquartered in Schenectady. Samuel R. Callaway left

1593-539: The Studebaker corporation in 1967 to form Studebaker-Worthington , Alco remaining a wholly owned subsidiary. Former divisions of Alco became semi-independent subsidiaries in 1968. After the termination of locomotive production in 1969, the locomotive designs (but not the engine development rights) were transferred to the Montreal Locomotive Works , which continued their manufacture. The diesel engine business

1652-431: The 1930s and its established service infrastructure. ALCo would prove unable to overcome that lead. In 1946, ALCo controlled 26% of the diesel locomotive market. The ubiquitous S series ( 660 and 1000 horsepower) switchers and RS series ( 1000 and 1500 horsepower) road switchers represented ALCo well during the late 1940s. Much of its success in this period can be tied to its pioneering RS locomotives, representing

1711-554: The Army announced that BAE Systems had won the "facilities use" contract to become the plant operator. RFAAP is housed on 4,600 acres (19 km) with 1,038 buildings, 214 igloos and storage capacity of 657,003 square feet where the New River divides Pulaski from Montgomery County. RFAAP is home to several tenants of similar industry, including: In June 2015 the plant requested a renewal of its permit of an open burning ground which it has used for decades to dispose of its waste. The ground

1770-534: The Army from 2041 to 2123. The initial fate of most of the MRS-1 locomotives was to be placed in storage at the Army's Transportation Materiel Command facility at Marietta, Pennsylvania awaiting a war to use them in; they had not been purchased for peacetime use. These brand-new locomotives, with at most a couple of weeks' actual use, sat preserved until approximately 1970, when the Pentagon concluded that their plans for

1829-577: The Army; the vendor providing the better locomotive would then produce the rest of the required locomotives. Both manufacturers delivered their sample batch in 1952, and after testing the GE locomotives, which were actually produced by ALCO as a subcontractor, were declared the winner, and a further batch of 70 ALCO MRS-1 locomotives were ordered. As delivered, they were painted in gloss black with white numbering and lettering. Fifty had steam generators for use in passenger service. The locomotives were numbered by

Radford Army Ammunition Plant - Misplaced Pages Continue

1888-513: The Berliet license was abandoned, and the company began to produce its own designs instead. An Alco racing car won the Vanderbilt Cup in both 1909 and 1910 and competed in the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911, driven on all three occasions by Harry Grant . ALCO's automotive venture was unprofitable, and they abandoned automobile manufacture in 1913. The Alco automobile story is notable chiefly as

1947-535: The Delaware & Hudson's 1924 addition of SKF roller bearings to the drivers and main and side rods of their own 4-6-2 locomotives). This was Timken 1111 , a 4-8-4 commissioned in 1930 by Timken Roller Bearing Company and ultimately used for 100,000 miles (160,000 km) on 15 major United States railroads before it was purchased in 1933 by the Northern Pacific Railway . The Northern Pacific renumbered

2006-529: The EMD's step down towards each end of the locomotive. 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 times diesel generators, automobiles, steel, tanks, munitions , oil-production equipment, as well as heat exchangers for nuclear power plants . The company

2065-554: The Electro-Motive Division of General Motors. Joseph Burroughs Ennis (1879–1955) was a senior vice president between 1917 and 1947 and was responsible for the design of many of the company's locomotives. The company diversified into the automobile business in 1906, producing French Berliet designs under license. Production was located at Alco's Rhode Island Locomotive Works in Providence, Rhode Island . Two years later,

2124-800: The Lake Whatcom Railway in Wickersham, Washington and the Middletown & Hummelstown Railroad in Middletown, Pennsylvania . The latter owns one of the last true ALCO switchers ever built, #1016. The 1016 is a T-6 type switcher engine. This and ALCO sister 151 (ex Western Maryland Railway S-6 ) provide daily service in Middletown. Two original Alco RS-2's that were delivered to the Nevada Northern Railway are still in operation. ALCO-Cooke 2-8-0 #18, built in 1920, survives in passenger service on

2183-512: The No. 2 position from ALCo, and eventually eclipsed EMD in overall production. Despite continual innovation in its designs (the first AC/DC transmission among others), ALCo gradually succumbed to its competition, in which its former ally, General Electric, was an important element. India during 1960s began gradual withdrawal of Steam locomotives from Indian Railways so the Diesel electric locomotive WDM series

2242-748: The business. The first nuclear power plant connected to the electrical grid, the SM-1, was built for the Army Nuclear Power Program at Fort Belvoir in Virginia in 1957. Another complete plant, the PM-2A, was shipped to and constructed at Camp Century in Greenland. The Camp Century plant was filmed by the U.S. Army. The company was purchased in 1964 by the Worthington Corporation , which merged with

2301-450: The company changed its name to Alco Products, Incorporated. In 1964, the Worthington Corporation acquired the company. The company went out of business in 1969, although Montreal Locomotive Works continued to manufacture locomotives based on Alco designs. The ALCO name is currently being used by Fairbanks Morse Engine for their FM|ALCO line. The company was created in 1901 from the merger of seven smaller locomotive manufacturers with

2360-428: The country's second-largest locomotive manufacturer behind Baldwin Locomotive Works . Alco produced more than 75,000 locomotives, including more steam locomotives than any U.S. company except Baldwin Locomotive Works . (Alco outlasted Baldwin, in part by shifting more readily to diesel.) Railroads that favored Alco products included the Delaware & Hudson Railway , the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad ,

2419-600: The diesel power on the Indian Railways . Many thousands of locomotives with Alco lineage are in regular mainline use in India. Most of these locomotives were built by the Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW) at Varanasi, India . The Diesel Loco Modernisation Works (DMW) at Patiala, India, do mid-life rebuilding and upgrading the power of these locomotives, typically the 2,600 horsepower (1.94 MW) WDM-2 to 3,100 horsepower (2.31 MW). A number of Alco and MLW diesel–electric locomotives (models DL500C, DL532B, DL537, DL543, MX627 and MX636) are in daily use hauling freight trains of

Radford Army Ammunition Plant - Misplaced Pages Continue

2478-434: The dual-service 4-8-4 steam locomotive had shown great promise, 1948 was the last year that steam locomotives were manufactured in Schenectady. These were the seven A-2a class 9400-series Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad 2-8-4 "Berkshires." Their tenders had to be subcontracted to Lima Locomotive Works , as Alco's tender shop had been closed. The building was converted to make diesel locomotives to compete with those of

2537-483: The engines 6&12R251 into naval gensets and also with the 6R251 in FAUR factory were made locomotives known as LDH 1500 CP. (CFR Classes 67/68/70/71 and CFR Class 61). They were also exported in Iran and Greece ( OSE ) Several Alco-built mainline engines are still operational, such as Union Pacific 844 , Union Pacific Big Boy 4014 , Milwaukee Road 261 , Soo Line 1003 , and Florida East Coast 148 . UP Challenger 3985 ran in UP excursion service until 2010, but

2596-420: The fastest American locomotives, the Class A Atlantic and Class F7 Hudson streamliners for the Milwaukee Road 's Twin Cities Hiawatha run. Among the ambitious state-of-the-art designs of the late steam era, Alco's Challengers, Big Boys, and high-speed streamliners stood out for their success in operations. Alco built the second production steam locomotive in North America to use roller bearings (after

2655-406: The first modern road–switcher, a configuration which has long-outlasted ALCo. The success of their switcher and road–switcher locomotives was not matched with the PA and FA -type mainline units, however. The 244 engine, developed in a crash program to compete with EMD's powerful 567 engine, proved unreliable and sales of ALCo's mainline units soon went into decline. In 1948, ALCo-GE produced

2714-507: The last to be used by the armed forces. Thirteen of the locomotives were sold to the Alaska Railroad —six in 1974, and seven in 1975. Alaska retired its last ALCO MRS-1s in 1984. Two locomotives were sold to the Uruguayan Administración de Ferrocarriles del Estado , numbered 1611, 1612. One suffered a fire in 1994 and was scrapped while the other is stored inoperable. While many locomotives were ultimately scrapped, several still exist, in various states of preservation. Examples exist at

2773-411: The late 1960s, Alco gradually ceased locomotive production, shipping its last two locomotives, a pair of T-6 switchers to the Newburgh & South Shore Railroad (#1016 and #1017) in January 1969. ALCo closed its Schenectady locomotive plant later that year, and sold its designs to the Montreal Locomotive Works in Canada. The vast ALCo Schenectady plant was completely demolished by 2019, and its site

2832-415: The market for locomotives was declining after the height of the dieselization era and EMD's GP9 was on the market as a proven competitor backed by a service infrastructure that ALCo, since the dissolution of the GE partnership, lacked. Sales were disappointing and ALCo's profitability suffered. GE entered the export road-diesel locomotive market in 1956, then the domestic market in 1960, and quickly took

2891-413: The pace of ALCo's efforts to develop a replacement for the troubled 244 engine, dissolved their partnership with ALCo and took over the gas turbine–electric venture that had started series production the previous year. In 1956, ALCo made long-overdue changes, modernizing its production process and introducing road locomotives with its new 251 engine. However, the benefits to ALCo were negated by bad timing;

2950-424: The peaked cab roof and long hood roof on the EMD locomotives, and the radiator intakes on the sides of the long hood end, which have outside shutters on the ALCO locomotives. In addition, the short hood is visibly lower than the long hood, thanks to the long hood's peaked roof; on the ALCO units, the two are the same height. The frame side sills are also different; the ALCO's are straight from front to rear, while

3009-447: The presidency of the New York Central Railroad to become president of Alco. When Callaway died on June 1, 1904, Albert J. Pitkin succeeded him as president of Alco. In 1904, the American Locomotive Company acquired control of the Locomotive and Machine Company of Montreal , Quebec, Canada; this company was eventually renamed the Montreal Locomotive Works . In 1905, Alco purchased Rogers Locomotive Works of Paterson, New Jersey ,

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3068-456: The vast majority of the broad gauges in use worldwide, including those of the then Soviet Union ( 1,520 mm ( 4 ft  11 + 27 ⁄ 32  in )) and the Iberian peninsula ( 1,668 mm ( 5 ft  5 + 21 ⁄ 32  in )). The specification was put out to tender, and two companies responded; GM and GE . Both companies were contracted produced a batch of thirteen locomotives which would be evaluated by

3127-488: Was developed by Banaras Locomotive Works with help of American Locomotive Company (ALCO) for Indian Railways. In 1962 Alco locomotives entered in service and since then Thousands of Alco class Locomotive WDM-2 , WDM-3A , WDM-3D would be manufactured and rebuilt which would make most successful locomotives of Indian Railways serving both passenger and freight trains and still retain operational status for Indian railways today A new line of Century locomotives including

3186-441: Was formed by the merger of seven locomotive manufacturers and Schenectady Locomotive Engine Manufactory of Schenectady, New York . A subsidiary, American Locomotive Automobile Company, designed and manufactured automobiles under the Alco brand from 1905 to 1913. ALCO also produced nuclear reactors from 1954 to 1962. After World War II , Alco closed all of its manufacturing plants except those in Schenectady and Montreal. In 1955,

3245-729: Was largely overseen by Perry T. Egbert , vice president in charge of diesel locomotive sales and later president of the company. In the early to mid-1930s, ALCo was the pre-eminent builder of diesel–electric switch engines in the United States. It was slower than its competition to develop reliable diesel power for full-size mainline trains, though it did provided motive power for the Gulf, Mobile and Northern Railroad 's Rebel streamliners in 1935. In 1939, ALCo started producing passenger diesel locomotives to compete with General Motors ' Electro-Motive Corporation . The following year, ALCo teamed up with General Electric ( Alco-GE ) for much-needed support in competing with EMC. In 1941, ALCo introduced

3304-424: Was retired by the 1980s and scrapped at Cycle Systems in Roanoke, Virginia around 1993. From 1970 to 1985, there were nine major explosions at RFAAP that caused multiple deaths and millions in damage. Notably, an explosion equivalent to 8,600 pounds of TNT destroyed the plant's TNT manufacturing facility and injured 100 workers in 1974, and a 5,000-pound nitroglycerine explosion in 1985 killed two employees and left

3363-411: Was selected by the United States Army for a vital task: rejuvenating the Trans-Iranian Railway and extending it to the Soviet Union. This gave the U.S. ally a new supply line at a time when the German air force and navy had reduced Allied shipments to the Soviet port of Murmansk . The U.S. Army chose as locomotives the RSD-1 , a six-axle, six- traction motor variant of the light ALCo RS-1. Not only

3422-432: Was sold to White Motor Corporation in 1970, which developed White Industrial Power . In 1977 White Industrial Power was sold to the British General Electric Company (GEC) which renamed the unit Alco Power. The business was subsequently sold to the Fairbanks-Morse corporation, which continues to manufacture Alco-designed engines in addition to their own design. The heat exchanger business continued as Alco Products for

3481-440: Was the company prevented from selling these locomotives to mainline U.S. railroads, but the 13 RS-1s that had already been built were commandeered for Iranian duty and converted to RSD-1s. The postwar era saw ALCo's steam products fall out of favor while it struggled to develop mainline diesel locomotives competitive with EMD's E and F series road locomotives, which were well-positioned from GM-EMC's large development efforts of

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