BOXCAB MODELING NOTES - on Boxcabs Models page.

BOXCAB DIMENSIONS - on Boxcabs Models page.

This site has now been visited times since the counter was installed.

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Second, take a look at Mark Laundry's Yard Limit Diesel Switcher Spotter's and Reference Guide, a site about early diesel switchers, especially a 1994 paper by Benn Coifman on " The Evolution of the Diesel Locomotive in the United States", with an excellent history of the ALCo-GE-IR consortium (on which I have drawn), as well as McKeen, Westinghouse/Baldwin, Hamilton/EMC/EMD, and Pullman's efforts.]

I must credit and thank the late John F. Campbell for much of the latest information about LIRR #401(1) and #402(2); since Sep 00, he had had an extremely detailed and accurate site focusing exclusively on the earliest history of the ALCo-GE-IR (AGEIR) locos, his "ALCO / General Electric / Ingersoll-Rand (AGEIR) Diesel-Electric Locomotives" site.  I heartily recommend it to you!  John Campbell had since added a complete roster of all the ALCo-GE-IR boxcab locos built in the first production run, totalling 33 units, from 1925 to 1930, but not the later Bi- and Tri-Power or GE-IR units.   (08 Dec 06)

LONG ISLAND RAIL ROAD
Oil-Electric Boxcab Locomotives
#401, #402, and #403a and 403b

LIRR #401working a freight at Morris Park in 1948
(Photo by Bob Morgan, courtesy of A. Huneke - all rights reserved)
(image restored - 15 Jun 05)

The World's First Production Diesel Road Switcher

Also the first diesel to haul a revenue train on a long-distance run

(Photo from TRAIN SHED CYCLOPEDIA #43)
(image restored - 14 Aug 04)
probably taken under the Kearney, New Jersey, hill, near Manhattan Transfer.)

(Drawing from John F. Campbell Collection - reproduced by permission - all rights reserved)

401 AA-2 102-ton AGEIR 66085 11/25 2x300 1

402:1 - 80-ton Brill 22315 1/26 2x250 2

402:2 AA-3 109-ton AGEIR 67330 9/28 2x300 3

403A BS-6 87-ton@ B-W 60185 1/28 2x330 4

B 60186     Note 1 - #401 was rebult at GE's Erie, Pennsylvania, plant in Sep 27.  GE s/n 9740.  I-R carbody class B6-1.
    Note 2 - #402:1 had twin gasoline engines; LIRR never took title.
    Note 3 - #402:2 GE s/n 10465.  One-off carbody B6-4 (possibly Schenectady instead of Erie); last AGEIR "100"-tonner.
    Note 4 - #403A & B semi-permamnent coupled pair; later separated.  Mike and Ike.  Rebuilt Dec 29.

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Here is the 1930 Westinghouse catalog data for #403, moved here from the Baldwin boxcabs page on 02 Jan 2002:

Although there is no copyright notice anywhere in the issue, I want it perfectly clear
that this material comes directly from TRAIN SHED CYCLOPEDIA #43, edited only minimally.

TRAIN SHED CYCLOPEDIA #43

"Diesel and Oil Electrics from Westinghouse (1930) and Ingersoll-Rand (1936)"
64 Full-Size Pages Reprinted from the Original Catalogs - Newton K. Gregg, publisher, March 1976

Oil Electric Locomotive Data

Long Island Railroad {sic}

Two 43.5 - Ton
Oil Electric Motive Power
Units for Switching Service

(Road Numbers 403-A
and 403-B)

{Full specifications in exact Westinghouse format:}

Total Weight per unit                                               87,000 lb.
Classification of wheels                                            B {Bo}
Weight on drivers                                                   87,000 lb.
Number of driving axles                                              2
Maximum starting tractive effort (25.8% adhesion)                   22,400 lb.
Tractive effort - continuous rating                                  3,250 lb.
Maximum safe speed                                                  30 mph.
Track gauge                                                          4  ft.,  8½ in.
Total wheel base                                                     9  ft.,  6  in.
Rigid wheel base                                                     9  ft.,  6  in.
Length overall (center line of coupler to center line of draw bar)  23  ft.,  4¼ in.
Length of cab                                                       20  ft.,  0  in.
Width of cab                                                         9  ft.,  7  in.
Height from rail to top of radiators                                14  ft., 11  in.
Diameter of drivers                                                          38  in.
Engines per cab                                                      1 - Westinghouse
Type and fuel                                                       Solid injection - oil
Cylinders                                                            6
Cycle                                                                4 stroke
Rating                                                              300 hp. at 800 rpm.
Generator                           1 - type 477, 600-volt, d-c., direct-connected to engine.
Auxiliary generator                                                 1 - type YG-9-A-2
Number and type of motors                                           2 - type 308-H
Gear ratio                                                         16:66
Control       Electro-pneumatic, single-end, multiple unit, series-parallel.  Automatic control
    of engine putput by torque governor
Battery                                                            64 volts, 272 amp.-hr.
Compressors                                                         2 - type DH-20
Radiators                                           Force cooled with automatic blower control.
Number of this type of unit furnished                               2
Year placed in service                                             1928

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LONG ISLAND RAIL ROAD
INFORMATION BULLETIN.

(moved here from the main LIRR #401 page 13 Feb 04)

Art Huneke, noted LIRR historian and ephemera collector sent me copies of the LONG ISLAND RAILROAD BULLETIN {note the misspelling of "Rail Road"}, Vol. IV, No. 4, of Jan. 1926, covering introduction of the #401, and Vol. V, No. 6, of July-August 1928, covering introduction of the #403.

Because these are such significant documents, I've blown a good bit of memory to bring them to you as is, including the full cover pages, and only truncating the last page of each article.  In addition, I have excerpted the photos separately, as well, so that you can see them up close without an image processor.:

[They are large (75-200Kb), so I created thumbnails;
click on the thumbnails to bring up the full images.

[Equally unfortunately, most were lost, irretrievably, but, thanks to Art,
have been restored as of 25 Feb 04]

The detailed photos show LIRR Vice-President LeBoutellier in the cab, the guests examining the new loco, and the group at Bay Ridge (I wonder what loco is behind the coaches?):

 

Now, here's similar, if lesser, coverage of the arrival of #403 (Vol. V, No. 6, of July-August 1928):

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(xerocopy of H. Fagerburg {l.} 10 Mar 46 and Daily News {r.} 01 Oct 42 photos
courtesy of, and dated by, R. Zinn - all rights reserved)
[click on thumbnailed images to bring up large (~1.5Mb) pictures]

(detail of xerocopy of H. Fagerberg 10 Mar 46 photo courtesy of R. Zinn - all rights reserved
[click on thumbnailed image to bring up large (1.7Mb) picture]

Similarly, John Scala gave me a copy of a large-format Ewing Galloway shot (from the coaling tower) of Morris Park in May 1946, but look what's almost hidden in the lower left (SW) corner - none other than AGEIR boxcab #402:2, the only roof detail I've ever seen:   (11 Dec 06)

(May 46 Ewing Galloway photo courtesy of J. Scala - all rights reserved,
dated by R. Zinn - scanned and pieced by SB,III)
[click on thumbnailed image to bring up very large (2Mb) picture]

(detail of May 46 Ewing Galloway photo courtesy of J. Scala - all rights reserved
[click on thumbnailed image to bring up larger picture]

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This is to what the LIRR has sunk; it's a box and it has a cab and it's #401
    (more than that deponent sayeth not, except that it's a DE30AC,
      according to TRAINS, Dec 97, page 34):

How the mighty have fallen!

Notice that no one seems quite sure what it is at which they're looking!

Ass-end View of an Assinine Assemblage

Well, we know darned sure it's no PA-1!

[Gotta get me a nice shot of a PRR PA-1 (Class AP20) in 5-stripe Tuscan red livery!]

Also, in fairness, I finally rode one in early Sep 99 and it's smooth and quiet and accelerates like CRAAAAZY!  Actually, I've ridden on them many times since and they are really great!

Here's a drawing of the new #401:

Image by Jack Bleiberg (renumbered* by SB,III - 28 Dec 99)]

{Too funny!  When I renumbered it (from 400), I changed
the tiny number over the cab to "410", instead of "401",
only noticed it 19 Jan 03 and corrected it instantly!}

Freudenreich Feinwerktechnik makes a fabulous 60-ton Boxcab model, with and without end doors, in Z (1:220) scale (with a flywheel, no less!); see my Z Scale Continuation Page 3.  If we could have gotten about 5 or 6 people together, he'd have made a stretched, early 100-ton version (with correct window spacing and roof detail); as it was, I had to get a custom, one-off chassis for myself for a microscopic #401 (see Even More Z on Z-scale page 5).  Now, about #402 - - - (not to mention a #403)!

The AGEIR consortium built many other 100-cum-108 ton 600HP twin-engined units; one of the very first was the Great Northern #5100, put in service in Nov 1926.  #5100 combined characteristics of both one-of-a-kind #401 and later units; it had the heavy outside channel frame of #401 but the rounded ends (with doors) of #110-1, RRL #502, and #402 and such, and the odd, intermediate-style, flat horizontal-coil radiators of IR #90, C&NW #1002, and Union Carbide #11 60-tonners (but combined into single sets, rather than #401's four pairs):

[Images from TRAIN SHED CYCLOPEDIA #20 (108-ton)and #43 (100-ton)

For more on the only surviving 100-ton (nominal - actually 108-ton) oil-electric boxcab, Foley Bros. #110-1, now preserved at the Feather River Rail Society's Portola museum, click here.

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