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115-640: Polar Sea has been out of service as of 2010 due to failure of five of her six Alco main diesel engines. Between 2010 and 2023, the “Polar Sea” has been used as a parts donor for sister ship the Polar Star . In 2024, the ship was towed to and placed in mothball status in Suisun Bay, California . Polar Sea has a computerized propulsion control system to effectively manage six diesel-powered propulsion generators, three diesel-powered ship's service generators, three propulsion gas turbines , and other equipment vital to

230-544: A mayor-council form of government, with seven members elected from single-member districts . This was approved by voters. As white conservatives increasingly entered the Republican Party in the late 20th century, African-American residents of the city have elected members of the Democratic Party as their candidates of choice. Since the change to single-member districts, more women and African Americans were elected to

345-455: A 30-year period. Mobile averages 120 days per year with at least 0.01 inches (0.3 mm) of rain. Precipitation is heavy year-round. On average, July and August are the wettest months, with frequent and often-heavy shower and thunderstorm activity. October stands out as a slightly drier month than all others. Snow is rare in Mobile, with its last snowfall occurring on December 8, 2017; before this,

460-509: A city of commerce with a primary focus on the cotton and slave trades. Many slaves were transported by ship in the coastwise slave trade from the Upper South. There were many businesses in the city related to the slave trade – people to make clothes, food, and supplies for the slave traders and their wards. The city's booming businesses attracted merchants from the North; by 1850 10% of its population

575-699: 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

690-562: A copious number of T2 tankers for the War Department. Gulf Shipbuilding Corporation , a subsidiary of Waterman Steamship Corporation , focused on building freighters , Fletcher -class destroyers , and minesweepers . The rapid increase of population in the city produced crowded conditions, increasing social tensions in the competition for housing and good jobs. In May 1943, a race riot broke out between whites and blacks. ADDSCO management had long maintained segregated conditions at

805-420: 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

920-663: A majority for their candidates in the informally segregated city. In 1969, the Brookley Air Force Base was closed by the Department of Defense, dealing a severe blow to Mobile's economy. The closing resulted in a 10% unemployment rate in the city. This and other factors related to industrial restructuring ushered in a period of economic depression that lasted through the 1970s. The loss of jobs created numerous problems and resulted in loss of population as residents moved away for work. Mobile's city commission form of government

1035-463: A path ending in Prichard. Initial damage estimates for insured and uninsured ranged from $ 140 to $ 150 million. Mobile's French and Spanish colonial history has given it a culture distinguished by French, Spanish, Creole , African and Catholic heritage, in addition to later British and American influences. It is distinguished from all other cities in the state of Alabama. The annual Carnival celebration

1150-536: 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

1265-602: A result of the new British rule and religious tolerance. Jews had not been allowed to officially reside in colonial French Louisiana due to the Code Noir , a decree passed by France's King Louis XIV in 1685 that forbade the exercise of any religion other than Roman Catholicism, and ordered all Jews out of France's colonies. Most of these colonial-era Jews in Mobile were merchants and traders from Sephardic Jewish communities in Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina ; they added to

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1380-550: A series of floods resulted in Bienville ordering in 1711 that the settlement be relocated several miles downriver to its present location at the confluence of the Mobile River and Mobile Bay . A new earth-and-palisade Fort Louis was constructed at the new site during this time. By 1712, when Antoine Crozat was appointed to take over administration of the colony, its population had reached 400 persons. The capital of La Louisiane

1495-472: 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

1610-539: A sophisticated internal support structure that features canted ribs for approximately the forward two-thirds of the ship's frame. Polar Sea' s hull shape is designed to maximize icebreaking by efficiently combining the forces of the ship's forward motion, the downward pull of gravity on the bow, and the upward push of the inherent buoyancy of the stern. The curved bow and heavy weight allows Polar Sea to force ice edges to break off downward as cusps. This design does not use sharp edges or hammer-like blows to cut or break

1725-627: 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

1840-731: 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

1955-514: 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,

2070-855: 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 ,

2185-607: 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

2300-453: Is perhaps the best example of its differences. Mobile is the birthplace of the celebration of Mardi Gras in the United States and has the oldest celebration, dating to the early 18th century during the French colonial period. Carnival in Mobile evolved over the course of 300 years from a beginning as a sedate French Catholic tradition into the mainstream multi-week celebration that today bridges

2415-582: 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

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2530-500: Is the third-largest metropolitan area in the state after Birmingham and Huntsville. Alabama's only saltwater port, Mobile is located on the Mobile River at the head of Mobile Bay on the north-central Gulf Coast . The Port of Mobile has always played a key role in the economic health of the city, beginning with the settlement as an important trading center between the French colonists and Native Americans , down to its current role as

2645-400: 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

2760-827: 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

2875-478: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 , eventually ending legal segregation and regaining effective suffrage for African Americans. But whites in the state had more than one way to reduce African Americans' voting power. Maintaining the city commission form of government with at-large voting resulted in all positions being elected by the white majority, as African Americans could not command

2990-638: 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

3105-505: The Gulf of Mexico provides a mild subtropical climate ( Köppen Cfa ), with hot, humid summers and mild, rainy winters. The record low temperature was −1 °F (−18 °C), set on February 13, 1899, and the record high was 105 °F (41 °C), set on August 29, 2000. A 2007 study by WeatherBill, Inc. determined that Mobile is the wettest city in the contiguous 48 states, with 66.3 inches (1,680 mm) of average annual rainfall over

3220-737: 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

3335-527: 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

3450-499: The Mobile River , as the first capital of the French colony of La Louisiane . It was founded by French Canadian brothers Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville , to establish control over France's claims to La Louisiane . Bienville was appointed as royal governor of French Louisiana in 1701. Mobile's Roman Catholic parish was established on July 20, 1703, by Jean-Baptiste de la Croix de Chevrières de Saint-Vallier , Bishop of Quebec . The parish

3565-880: The Nevada Northern Railway in Ely, Nevada; at the Orange Empire Railway Museum in California, on the Lake Whatcom Railway in Washington and on the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad in Colorado. Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( / m oʊ ˈ b iː l / moh- BEEL , French: [mɔbil] ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama , United States. The population

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3680-749: 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

3795-663: The North Pole ; she sailed together with CCGS  Louis S. St-Laurent . In 1985, Polar Sea triggered a diplomatic event by navigating the Northwest Passage from Greenland to Alaska without authorization from the Canadian government . It was the United States' position that the Northwest Passage was an international strait open to shipping and it sought only to notify Canada rather than ask for permission. Publication of

3910-562: The Progressive Era to Mobile. The economic structure developed with new industries, generating new jobs and attracting a significant increase in population. The population increased from around 40,000 in 1900 to 60,000 by 1920. During this time the city received $ 3 million in federal grants for harbor improvements to deepen the shipping channels. During and after World War I, manufacturing became increasingly vital to Mobile's economic health, with shipbuilding and steel production being two of

4025-464: 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,

4140-556: 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

4255-539: 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

4370-616: The 12th-largest port in the United States . Mobile was founded in 1702 by the French as the first capital of Louisiana . During its first 100 years, Mobile was a colony of France, then Great Britain , and lastly Spain . Mobile became a part of the United States in 1813, with the annexation by President James Madison of West Florida from Spain. During the American Civil War , the city surrendered to Federal forces on April 12, 1865, after Union victories at two forts protecting

4485-559: The 1763 Treaty of Paris. Their actions were condoned by the revolting American colonies, partially evidenced by the presence of Oliver Pollack, representative of the American Continental Congress. Due to strong trade ties, many residents of Mobile and West Florida remained loyal to the British Crown . The Spanish renamed the fort as Fortaleza Carlota, and held Mobile as a part of Spanish West Florida until 1813, when it

4600-431: 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

4715-513: 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

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4830-601: The Cater Act in 1949, allowing cities and counties to set up industrial development boards (IDB) to issue municipal bonds as incentives to attract new industry into their local areas. The city of Mobile did not establish a Cater Act board until 1962. George E. McNally , Mobile's first Republican mayor since Reconstruction, was the driving force behind the founding of the IDB. The Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce, believing its members were better qualified to attract new businesses and industry to

4945-639: The Coast Guard to make a report to Congress on the feasibility of retrofitting Polar Sea . The report was submitted in November 2013 and indicated that it is feasible to retrofit and reactivate Polar Sea . As of September 25, 2022 the laid up ship was still in limbo alongside a pier at the Coast Guard Station on Elliott Bay, Seattle. It has not been determined if a new class will be funded, commercial icebreaker leasing options will be explored, and/or if

5060-535: 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

5175-554: 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,

5290-494: The Gulf Coast cities. A storm surge of 11.45 feet (3.49 m), topped by higher waves, damaged eastern sections of the city with extensive flooding in downtown, the Battleship Parkway , and the elevated Jubilee Parkway . In late December 2012, the city suffered two tornado hits. On December 25, 2012, at 4:54 pm, a large wedge tornado touched down in the city. The tornado rapidly intensified as it moved north-northeast at speeds of up to 50 mph (80 km/h). The path took

5405-514: 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

5520-489: The Midtown at the Loop neighborhood, Murphy High School , Trinity Episcopal Church , Springhill Avenue Temple , and Mobile Infirmary Hospital before moving into the neighboring city of Prichard. The tornado was classified as an EF2 tornado by the National Weather Service on December 26. The path taken through the city was just a short distance east of the path taken days earlier, on December 20, by an EF1 tornado which had touched down near Davidson High School and taken

5635-430: The Mississippi River to Britain. This area was made a part of the expanded British West Florida colony. The British changed the name of Fort Condé to Fort Charlotte , after Queen Charlotte . The British were eager not to lose any useful inhabitants and promised religious tolerance to the French colonists; ultimately 112 French colonists remained in Mobile. The first permanent Jewish settlers came to Mobile in 1763 as

5750-488: The Mobile County School Board for being denied admission to Murphy High School . This was nearly a decade after the United States Supreme Court had ruled in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. The federal district court ordered that the three students be admitted to Murphy for the 1964 school year, leading to the desegregation of Mobile County's school system. The civil rights movement gained congressional passage of

5865-525: The Native American tribe whose small fortress town, Mabila , was used to conceal several thousand native warriors before an attack in 1540 on the expedition of Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto . About seven years after the founding of the French Mobile settlement, the Mobile tribe, along with the Tohomé, gained permission from the colonists to settle near the fort. The European settlement of Mobile began with French colonists, who in 1702 constructed Fort Louis de la Louisiane , at Twenty-seven Mile Bluff on

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5980-418: 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

6095-452: The Polar Operations Division at Coast Guard Aviation Training Center, Mobile, Alabama . On 11 February 1981, Polar Sea made history when she became the first ship ever to reach Point Barrow, Alaska in the middle of winter. She is also just one of only three ships that has ever completely transited the Arctic Ocean and circumnavigated North America. On 22 August 1994, Polar Sea was one of the first two North American surface vessels to reach

6210-405: The area, considered the new IDB as a serious rival. After several years of political squabbling, the Chamber of Commerce emerged victorious. While McNally's IDB prompted the Chamber of Commerce to become more proactive in attracting new industry, the chamber effectively shut Mobile city government out of economic development decisions. In 1963, three African-American students brought a case against

6325-511: The area. Mobile is located in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Alabama. It is 168 miles (270 km) by highway southwest of Montgomery , the state capital; 58 miles (93 km) west of Pensacola, Florida ; and 144 miles (232 km) northeast of New Orleans . According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 180.07 square miles (466.4 km ), with 139.48 square miles (361.3 km ) of it being land, and 40.59 square miles (105.1 km ), or 22.5% of

6440-417: 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

6555-525: The city streetcars. It legislated what had been informal practice, enforced by convention. Mobile's African-American population responded to this with a two-month boycott, but the law was not repealed. After this, Mobile's de facto segregation was increasingly replaced with legislated segregation as whites imposed Jim Crow laws to maintain supremacy . In 1911 the city adopted a commission form of government, which had three members elected by at-large voting. Considered to be progressive, as it would reduce

6670-431: The city suffered great loss when some three hundred people died as a result of an explosion at a federal ammunition depot on Beauregard Street. The explosion left a 30-foot (9 m) deep hole at the depot's location, and sank ships docked on the Mobile River; the resulting fires destroyed the northern portion of the city. Federal Reconstruction in Mobile began after the Civil War and effectively ended in 1874 when

6785-481: The city. This, along with the news of Johnston 's surrender negotiations with Sherman , led General Richard Taylor to seek a meeting with his Union counterpart, Maj. Gen. Edward R. S. Canby . The two generals met several miles north of Mobile on May 2. After agreeing to a 48-hour truce , the generals enjoyed an al fresco luncheon of food, drink, and lively music. Canby offered Taylor the same terms agreed upon between Lee and Grant at Appomattox . Taylor accepted

6900-410: The commercial development of Mobile. In 1766 the total population was estimated to be 860, though the town's borders were smaller than during the French colonial period. During the American Revolutionary War , West Florida and Mobile became a refuge for loyalists fleeing the other colonies. While the British were dealing with their rebellious colonists along the Atlantic coast, the Spanish entered

7015-450: 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

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7130-451: The council than under the at-large system. Beginning in the late 1980s, newly elected mayor Mike Dow and the city council began an effort termed the "String of Pearls Initiative" to make Mobile into a competitive city. The city initiated construction of numerous new facilities and projects, and the restoration of hundreds of historic downtown buildings and homes. City and county leaders also made efforts to attract new business ventures to

7245-428: 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 ,

7360-600: 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

7475-483: The disputed waters. Polar Sea has been out of service since 2010. Andrew Revkin wrote at that time, "Five of its six mighty engines are stilled, some with worn pistons essentially welded to their sleeves." Examination of her engines indicated excessive engine wear. In 2011 the Coast Guard slated Polar Sea for demolition in 2012, but the scrapping of the 35-year-old icebreaker was postponed by Congress for at least six months in June. A congressional authorization required

7590-434: 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

7705-483: 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

7820-420: 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

7935-436: The first decade of the 18th century. Beginning in 1830, Mobile was host to the first formally organized Carnival mystic society to celebrate with a parade in the United States. (In New Orleans, such a group is called a krewe .) The city gained its name from the Mobile tribe that the French colonists encountered living in the area of Mobile Bay . Although it is debated by Alabama historians, they may have been descendants of

8050-406: 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

8165-415: The high-powered icebreaking common to her operations. The shell plating and associated internal support structure are fabricated from steel with superior low-temperature strength. The portion of the hull designed to ram ice is 1 3 ⁄ 4 inches thick (44 mm) in the bow and stern sections, and 1 1 ⁄ 4 inches thick (32 mm) amidships. The hull strength is produced almost entirely from

8280-469: The ice, as the round bow and massive weight are sufficient. With high power to back it up, the 13,000-ton (13,200-metric ton) Polar Sea is able to continuously progress through 6 feet (1.8 m) of new hard ice at 3 knots (6 km/h) and break up to 21 feet when using back-and-ram methods. An extreme exception to this occurred during a rapid transit to Pt. Barrow, Alaska between January 29 and February 11, 1981. While traversing 1000 miles of sea ice, Polar Sea

8395-605: The last snowfall had been nearly four years earlier, on January 27, 2014. Mobile is occasionally affected by major tropical storms and hurricanes. The city suffered a major natural disaster on the night of September 12, 1979, when category-3 Hurricane Frederic passed over the heart of the city. The storm caused tremendous damage to Mobile and the surrounding area. Mobile had moderate damage from Hurricane Opal on October 4, 1995, and Hurricane Ivan on September 16, 2004. Mobile suffered millions of dollars in damage from Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005, which damaged much of

8510-442: The late 1940s, the transition to the postwar economy was hard for the city, as thousands of jobs were lost at the shipyards with the decline in the defense industry. Eventually the city's social structure began to become more liberal. Replacing shipbuilding as a primary economic force, the paper and chemical industries began to expand. No longer needed for defense, most of the old military bases were converted to civilian uses. Following

8625-511: 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

8740-399: The local Democrats gained control of the city government. The last quarter of the 19th century was a time of economic depression and municipal insolvency for Mobile. One example can be provided by the value of Mobile's exports during this period of depression. The value of exports leaving the city fell from $ 9 million in 1878 to $ 3 million in 1882. The turn of the 20th century brought

8855-460: 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

8970-560: The massive influx of workers coming to work in the shipyards and at the Brookley Army Air Field . Between 1940 and 1943, more than 89,000 people moved into Mobile to work for war effort industries. Mobile was one of eighteen United States cities producing Liberty ships . Its Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company (ADDSCO) supported the war effort by producing ships faster than the Axis powers could sink them. ADDSCO also churned out

9085-399: The most important industries. During this time, social justice and race relations in Mobile worsened, however. The state passed a new constitution in 1901 that disenfranchised most blacks and many poor whites ; and the white Democratic-dominated legislature passed other discriminatory legislation. In 1902, the city government passed Mobile's first racial segregation ordinance, segregating

9200-452: The occasion of the importation of the first African slaves , transported aboard a French supply ship from the French colony of Saint-Domingue in the Caribbean , where they had first been held. The population of the colony fluctuated over the next few years, growing to 279 persons by 1708, yet shrinking to 178 persons two years later due to disease. These additional outbreaks of disease and

9315-518: The operation of the ship. Its three shafts are each turned by either one gas turbine or two diesel-electric power plants . Each shaft is connected to a 16-foot (4.9-m) diameter, four-bladed, controllable-pitch propeller . For all three shafts, the diesel-electric plants can produce a total of 18,000 shaft horsepower (13,425 kilowatts) and the gas turbine plants a total of 75,000 demand shaft horsepower (56 MW) or 60,000 continuous horsepower (44.8 MW). Polar Sea has sufficient hull strength to absorb

9430-413: 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;

9545-532: The plans enraged the Canadian public opinion as it was regarded as a breach and disregard of sovereignty and prompted the government to take preventive measures in defending Canada's arctic territories. The U.S. never recognized Canada's claim over the Northwest passage but nevertheless, the two countries reached an agreement two years later which stipulated that in the future, the U.S. would ask permission before navigating

9660-532: The power of ward bosses, this change resulted in the elite white majority strengthening its power, as only the majority could gain election of at-large candidates. In addition, poor whites and blacks had already been disenfranchised. Mobile was one of the last cities to retain this form of government, which prevented smaller groups from electing candidates of their choice. But Alabama's white yeomanry had historically favored single-member districts in order to elect candidates of their choice. The red imported fire ant

9775-570: 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 ,

9890-583: The primary missions include breaking a channel through the sea ice to resupply the McMurdo Station in the Ross Sea . Resupply ships use the channel to bring food, fuel, and other goods to make it through another winter. In addition to these duties, Polar Sea also serves as a scientific research platform with five laboratories, additional space for seven portable laboratories on deck and accommodations for up to 35 scientists. The J-shaped cranes and work areas near

10005-624: The ship should be scrapped. In February 2017, it was stated that Polar Sea would not be refurbished due to high cost; instead, the icebreaker would be used as a "parts donor" for Polar Star . 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

10120-573: The shipyards, although the Roosevelt administration had ordered defense contractors to integrate facilities. That year ADDSCO promoted 12 blacks to positions as welders, previously reserved for whites; and whites objected to the change by rioting on May 24. The mayor appealed to the governor to call in the National Guard to restore order, but it was weeks before officials allowed African Americans to return to work, keeping them away for their safety. In

10235-413: The stern and port side of ship give scientists the capability to do at-sea studies in the fields of geology , vulcanology , oceanography , sea-ice physics and other disciplines. Polar Sea carried two HH-65 Dolphin helicopters during major deployments. They support scientific parties, do ice reconnaissance , cargo transfer, and search and rescue as required. The Aviation Detachment comes from

10350-516: The terms and surrendered his command on May 4 at Citronelle, Alabama . Considered one of the Gulf Coast 's cultural centers, Mobile has several art museums, a symphony orchestra, professional opera, professional ballet company, and a large concentration of historic architecture. Mobile is known for having the oldest organized Carnival or Mardi Gras celebrations in the United States. Alabama's French Creole population celebrated this festival from

10465-536: The tornado into Midtown , causing damage or destruction to at least 100 structures. The heaviest damage to houses was along Carlen Street, Rickarby Place, Dauphin Street, Old Shell Road , Margaret Street, Silverwood Street, and Springhill Avenue. The tornado caused significant damage to the Carmelite Monastery, Little Flower Catholic Church, commercial real estate along Airport Boulevard and Government Street in

10580-590: The total, being covered by water. The elevation in Mobile ranges from 10 feet (3 m) on Water Street in downtown to 211 feet (64 m) at the Mobile Regional Airport. Mobile has a number of notable historic neighborhoods. These include Ashland Place , Campground , Church Street East , De Tonti Square , Leinkauf , Lower Dauphin Street , Midtown , Oakleigh Garden , Old Dauphin Way , Spring Hill , and Toulminville . Mobile's geographical location on

10695-532: The upland plantation areas, but many households had domestic slaves, and many other slaves worked on the waterfront and on riverboats. The last slaves to enter the United States from the African trade were brought to Mobile on the slave ship Clotilda . Among them was Cudjoe Lewis , who in the 1920s became the last survivor of the slave trade. By 1853, fifty Jewish families lived in Mobile, including Philip Phillips , an attorney from Charleston, South Carolina , who

10810-468: The vicinity of the Mobile River , and its main tributaries the Tombigbee and Alabama Rivers . A plantation economy using slave labor developed in the region and as a consequence Mobile's population quickly grew. It came to be settled by attorneys, cotton factors , doctors, merchants and other professionals seeking to capitalize on trade with the upriver areas. From the 1830s onward, Mobile expanded into

10925-512: The war in 1779 as an ally of France. They took the opportunity to order Bernardo de Galvez , Governor of Louisiana, on an expedition east to retake West Florida. He captured Mobile during the Battle of Fort Charlotte in 1780, as part of this campaign. The Spanish wished to eliminate any British threat to their Louisiana colony west of the Mississippi River, which they had received from France in

11040-580: The war, in which many African Americans had served, veterans and their supporters stepped up activism to gain enforcement of their constitutional rights and social justice, especially in the Jim Crow South. During the 1950s the City of Mobile integrated its police force and Spring Hill College accepted students of all races. Unlike in the rest of the state, by the early 1960s the city buses and lunch counters voluntarily desegregated. The Alabama legislature passed

11155-401: The whole of Mobile County, including the city, consisted of 29,754 citizens, of which 1,195 were free people of color . Additionally, 1,785 slave owners in the county held 11,376 people in bondage, about one-quarter of the total county population of 41,130 people. During the American Civil War , Mobile was a Confederate city. The H. L. Hunley , the first submarine to sink an enemy ship,

11270-569: Was 187,041 at the 2020 census . After a successful vote to annex areas west of the city limits in July 2023, Mobile's population increased to 204,689 residents, making it the fourth-most populous city in Alabama, after Montgomery , Birmingham , and Huntsville . Mobile is the principal municipality of the Mobile metropolitan area , a region of 430,197 residents composed of Mobile and Washington counties; it

11385-473: Was able to break through ice up to 40 ft thick. There is a crew of 24 officers , 20 chief petty officers and 102 enlisted . The ship has four sizable lounges, a library , gym (in an engineering space), and a small ship's store. It also has its own U.S. Post Office , satellite pay telephones , amateur radio equipment , photo lab, and movie library. Polar Sea has a variety of missions while operating in polar regions. During Antarctic deployments,

11500-474: Was built in Mobile. One of the most famous naval engagements of the war was the Battle of Mobile Bay , resulting in the Union taking control of Mobile Bay on August 5, 1864. On April 12, 1865, three days after Robert E. Lee 's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse , the city surrendered to the Union army to avoid destruction after Union victories at nearby Spanish Fort and Fort Blakeley . On May 25, 1865,

11615-639: Was challenged and finally overturned in 1982 in City of Mobile v. Bolden , which was remanded by the United States Supreme Court to the district court. Finding that the city had adopted a commission form of government in 1911 and at-large positions with discriminatory intent, the court proposed that the three members of the city commission should be elected from single-member districts , likely ending their division of executive functions among them. Mobile's state legislative delegation in 1985 finally enacted

11730-488: 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

11845-524: Was developed with wharves, terminal facilities, and fireproof brick warehouses. The exports of cotton grew in proportion to the amounts being produced in the Black Belt ; by 1840 Mobile was second only to New Orleans in cotton exports in the nation. With the economy so focused on one crop, Mobile's fortunes were always tied to those of cotton, and the city weathered many financial crises. Mobile slaveholders owned relatively few slaves compared to planters in

11960-700: Was elected to the Alabama State Legislature and then to the United States Congress. Many early Jewish families were descendants of Sephardic Jews who had been among the earliest colonial settlers in Charleston and Savannah. By 1860 Mobile's population within the city limits had reached 29,258 people; it was the 27th-largest city in the United States and 4th-largest in what would soon be the Confederate States of America . The free population in

12075-550: Was first introduced into the United States via the Port of Mobile. Sometime in the late 1930s they came ashore off cargo ships arriving from South America. The ants were carried in the soil used as ballast on those ships. They have spread throughout the South and Southwest. During World War II , the defense buildup in Mobile shipyards resulted in a considerable increase in the city's white middle-class and working-class population, largely due to

12190-488: 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,

12305-500: Was from New York City , which was deeply involved in the cotton industry. Mobile was the slave-trading center of the state until the 1850s, when it was surpassed by Montgomery . The prosperity stimulated a building boom that was underway by the mid-1830s, with the building of some of the most elaborate structures the city had seen up to that point. This was cut short in part by the Panic of 1837 and yellow fever epidemics. The waterfront

12420-729: 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

12535-516: Was moved in 1720 to Biloxi , leaving Mobile to serve as a regional military and trading center. In 1723 the construction of a new brick fort with a stone foundation began and it was renamed Fort Condé in honor of Louis Henri, Duke of Bourbon . In 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Seven Years' War , which Britain won, defeating France. By this treaty, France ceded its territories east of

12650-573: Was seized by United States General James Wilkinson during the War of 1812 . By the time Mobile was included in the Mississippi Territory in 1813, the population had dwindled to roughly 300 people. The city was included in the Alabama Territory in 1817, after Mississippi gained statehood. Alabama was granted statehood in 1819; Mobile's population had increased to 809 by that time. Mobile

12765-733: 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

12880-564: 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

12995-440: 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

13110-450: Was the first French Catholic parish established on the Gulf Coast of the United States . In 1704, the ship Pélican delivered 23 Frenchwomen to the colony; passengers had contracted yellow fever at a stop in Havana . Though most of the " Pélican girls" recovered, numerous colonists and neighboring Native Americans contracted the disease in turn and many died. This early period was also

13225-552: Was well situated for trade, as its location tied it to a river system that served as the principal navigational access for most of Alabama and a large part of Mississippi. River transportation was aided by the introduction of steamboats in the early decades of the 19th century. By 1822, the city's population had risen to 2,800. The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain created shortages of cotton, driving up prices on world markets. Much land well suited to growing cotton lies in

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