MY LOCOMOTIVE ROSTER

My Locomotive Roster (past and present)

ALCO Diesels

I'm not alone. Among diesel railroading enthusiasts, the American Locomotive Company (or ALCO) produced some of the most appealing locomotives on the planet. Fortunately, many of the predecessor railroads that made up Conrail had some serious stock in Alco, and would buy - the Pennsylvania Railroad always had Alco products, the Lehigh Valley's C628's were some of the most striking 6-axle diesels around, and the Delaware and Hudson actually favored Alcos in their roster. I'll start with some of the oldest models and work forward in time.

RS 36 - Delaware & Hudson 5018 and 5023

C424 - Conrail 2415 (former PRR and Penn Central with the same road number)

Heading 4

In 1963, the D&H traded in 12 aging RS-3s to ALCo for new 1,800 hp roadswitcher units.What they received was the improved RS-36 model, essentially an upgraded RS-11. All were received with low short hoods and in the classic D&H Lightning Stripe livery. I have two of these that I always run together, Road Numbers 5023 and 5018. I bought these Altas locomotives already in their current paint scheme, which probably post-dates 1976. I'm willing to bet that the larger numbers on the long hood weren't common until around 1978 or so, but I like them and they're going to stay for now. These have been reliable for me for quite a few years now. In 1966 Alco released they're Century Series locomotives, one of which, the C420 is aesthetically close to the RS-32/36. In fact, after the Conrail startup, Conrail donated a few Lehigh Valley C420's to the D&H. It became tough to tell the RS-11 low nose, RS-36, and C420 units apart.

This C424 was the only one to be purchased by the PRR, although the Erie Lackawanna had multiple units. When the C425 came out a year later, the PRR purchased many more of that more powerful model. There are some aestetic differences between the C424 and C425, but they are pretty minor. The one I have on my roster was an Athearn yellow box model that I converted to DCC by adding a drop-in card from Digitrax I believe. It also came in PRR livery, so it got a coat of grimy black and Penn Central decals. Although it runs well, the coupler pockets hang low on the body and don't have a lot of support. I haven't seen this model rendered by a different supplier, but would love to have one with more stable coupling.

C425 - Conrail 2419 (former PRR and PC with the same road number)

I bought this one also as an Athearn yellow box DC loco, as an experiment - I wanted to get it DCC capable, weather it, and see how much I could sell it for. (Note to self, it's not worth it - I think I got my money back and maybe a very small profit). I think it might have already been in Penn Central livery. I ended up selling it, and the new owner liked it. That locomotive is the background of every page on this website.

C628 - Lehigh Valley 625, D&H 602, D&H 609, and Penn Central (CR stencil-out) 6751

The Cornell Red LV 625 was my first Alco. It's a Stewart Hobbies model (as all of my six-axle Alco fleet are), and it has a few extra detail parts. Love the red. I've thought about getting a Snowbird (black and white) model to add to the fleet and then doing a paint-out on it. I recently weathered it (see the blog entry on weathering) and it came out looking pretty good. D&H 702 is right out of the box, but D&H 709 I bought undecorated - added the paint scheme and details. I weathered the 602 (see the pic) before I sold it (see the blog on details for that). My last C628 is the one I'm probably most proud of. It started life undecorated, painted in Penn Central livery including decals, and then I did a paint-out and added CR stencils and weathering.

C630 - Reading 5304 and Penn Central 6328

Distinguishable by the extra square intact grill on the long hood, the C630 was (before introduction of the C636) one of the most powerful locomotives on the planet at the time of its inception. The Reading and the Penn Central owned multiple units, and I got both of these from ebay - I needed more Reading inclusion in my roster and I thought the C630 would be a nice addition. The Penn Central unit I also got at auction, with the intention of weathering and selling it, which I did this past year. I like running these engines, but for some strange reason, they have trouble running in reverse with the long side running first. I can't figure it out. I may sell the Reading unit too at some point. The C630 also has a 4-axle sister, the C430 which Bowser put out a few years ago. Reading also had those on its roster.

General Electric Diesels

In the late 1960's GE starting making a push to get into the diesel locomotive market. Up to that point, they had partnered a good deal with ALCO in supplying components. Their 'U' or Utility series of locomotives were an innovative design that would take market share away from Alco and would start to eat away at the profits of the big dog in the diesel market - the Electro Motive Division of General Motors. Today they run neck-and-neck with EMD, and Alco is no more.

U25B - Erie Lackawanna 2513

I like interesting-looking locomotives. Most of the U-boats looked a lot like Alcos, but the U25B, with its long nose and rear grillwork was just different enough to catch my eye. I had to have one. I felt like the Erie Lackawanna was under-represented in my fleet, so I hunted down a used Stewart Hobbies version on ebay. It still need some railings (no spare parts at the moment, but I'm hopeful I can acquire railings for this model soon). After about a year of waiting, I was finally able to purchase some handrails. Thought it would be a simple add.... not so much. See the "From a Simple Fix" blog to see how I got the original EL 2513 to CR 2589 (shown below)....

EMD Diesels

EMD stepped off the block right after World War II bound and determined to corner the diesel market. It's hard to argue with their success, especially their second generation diesels which could be found in virtually everyone's locomotive roster. At its inception, Conrail had plenty - from GP-7s through GP-39s and SD-38s. Once it became apparent that most of the locomotives it inheritted were in rough shape, many of the early Conrail locomotives were traded or scrapped in favor of new models like the GP and SD-40. Until that time, however, any of EMDs engines could be seen all over the system. For my layout, although I favor Alco, I do have two of my favorite EMD model, the GP-30. The Erie Lackawanna's stable for six-axle mainline power had a lot of SD-45's, so I also have two of them.

I documented the transformation of a B&O GP-30 to PC 2232 fairly well in my blog entry (see https://morristhemoosetm.wixsite.com/rainbows/post/my-gp-30-is-back). I also have a Reading GP-30 (also a Bachmann Spectrum unit. I don't tend to run my Reading unit - it sits on my programming track most days. As I said in my blog entry, I love the look of the GP30, it's very distinctive.

GP30 - Reading 5513 and Penn Central 2232

SD45 - Erie Lackawanna 3614 and Reading 7604

These monsters were big movers of freight, but apparently had their issues. I'd like to think GM incorporated the need changes when they developed their ultra-popular SD-40. The SD-45 had a limited life on Conrail, but were an important asset in the early days. Both of mine are Bachmann Spectrum with DCC units. I have had issues with the DCC chip (replaced with a Digitrax decoder in each one). Otherwise I've been quite pleased with both of them. I know Bachmann gets a bad name, but I really think if you're picky, you can get some really good locomotives at a nice price.

I finally picked up one of these... When Conrail was formed, the D&H was left out - apparently by design to be Conrail's rival in the Northeast and encourage competition. In addition to getting extended track rights over Conrail trackage, the D&H got an infusion of locomotives including 20 of the last locomotives delivered to the Reading Railroad, the GP39-2. These (along with the GP40s) got the Reading's last paint scheme (the green dip with yellow rails and chevrons on the front and rear ends. Saw a GP40 year's ago and I've always dug this scheme. After finding out that D&H got the GP39s, I have been looking for one. Athearn Genesis advertised this one in 2020, but it wasn't until early 2022 that there were available for purchase. This one is begging for some weathering, but is an awesome looking locomotive.

Ex-Reading, Delaware and Hudson GP39-2

Reading GP40-2

Picked this one up on ebay - another DC to DCC conversion, added a plow, MU hoses, and did a lot of work on the color to make it less bright. Along with the GP39-2's above, these were the last new locomotives on the Reading roster and quickly converted over to Conrail (as opposed to the GP39's which became D&H property. There were only 5 of these ordered for the Reading in the Green scheme. This is also an Athearn unit weathered to reflect some usage.