Dieselizing the C&O: The Baldwins

In studying how diesels replaced steam on the "old" C&O, let's forget dieselizing of the Pere Marquette District with General Motors locomotives. This influence through passenger,. switcher, and road switcher types on the future C&O was so pervasive that one cannot think of diesels coming to the old C&O without concentrating on BL2's, GP7's, E7's, NW2's, SW9's etc. The Electro-Motive Division of General Motors had sewed up the diesel road locomotive market on the eve of World War II. General Electric was biding its time, content for the moment to see that Westinghouse Electric, its big competitor in heavy electrical equipment-like straight electric and diesel-electric locomotives-was getting nowhere. Fairbanks-Morse of Beloit, Wisconsin, produced some beautiful units but the C&O was never interested. And down at Pascagoula, Mississippi, the Ingalls Shipbuilding Company produced some functional-looking models right after the War, but only the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio was interested.

There were makers of industrial locomotives still around, like Porter and Plymouth, but, besides GM, only the "Big Three" steam locomotive manufacturers had the resources right after the War to offer road diesel locomotives to Class I U.S. railroads. These three were the American Locomotive Company (Alco) based in Schenectady, New York; the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Eddystone, Pa. (a Philadelphia suburb); and the Lima Locomotive Works of Lima, Ohio. Their "resources" sadly did not include much "intellectual property" but their extensive physical property, like machine shops, cranes, etc., was easily converted from steam to diesel production. For example, Lima and Baldwin both geared up for diesel production by altering their steam locomotive tender production facilities.

There was no question that the C&O's merger with the Pere Marquette would make General Motors the supplier of choice when C&O management made its sudden decision to start dieselizing following the disastrous operating ratio reported at the end of 1948. But should the C&O not give its "old reliable" steam locomotive builders a chance to compete? It never gave Lima and its transfer locomotives and switchers a chance, despite the long association of C&O's Advisory Mechanical Committee with that pioneer of "Super Power." But then only about a year elapsed after Lima ended its steam production before it merged with Baldwin to form the BaldwinLima-Hamilton Corp. in 1950. American had been building diesel-electric locomotives (using GE electric components) in a big way since the 1920s, so it was quite appropriate that the C&O purchase Alco-GE diesel locomotives without delay after that really bad financial year. It was also appropriate that the C&O initially purchase Baldwin diesels in 1949, for historic Baldwin had for many years worked with giant Westinghouse Electric to adapt gradually to the new technology of coupling electrical transmission with portable oil-fired diesel engines.

What this writer remembers from that long hot summer at Russell in 1949 (waiting for community college classes that fall and a job on the railroad as a clerk to materialize) was the arrival of two EMD "cow and two calves" semi-permanently coupled units intended to replace the 2-8-8-2 and 2-6-6-2 doubleheader coal hump locomotives. This they did in July, but the first photos I got of them showed one of the units ready to leave Russell on a manifest train for the run to Handley during a coal strike. (Because diesels cost so much it was essential to keep them busy.)

This was not the first diesel I had ever seen at Russell! That "honor" goes to C&O 5002, which arrived in June and was put to work on the demanding "West End Heavy Side" assignment, flat switching long cuts of Cincinnati and Northern Division manifests. (It replaced a heavy 0-8-0 switcher.) It was very hot and humid when I rode my 24-inch bike from home down the river road to Worthington and through the 52-track yard underpass to the "Old Yard." There I made several shots on cut film showing the 1000-H.P. Alco six-cylinder switcher, designated a model S-2 and among the first of nearly 1,400 S-2 switchers Alco built to serve all over the United States. These engines were designed so ruggedly that in the year 2006 I can point to one still serving a grain elevator in central Ohio, on the line from Columbus to Walbridge. These were the big inroads made into the Chesapeake District during that seminal year of 1949.

These first new diesels I saw on the C&O were EMD and Alco-GE products. What about Baldwin-Westinghouse? It was in the game as well. C&O had early placed with Baldwin orders for six-axle, six-motor freight diesels. General Motors would not introduce its six-axle SD series until 1952 and Alco was just as far behind in development of its RSD models. The C&O's first three Baldwin six-axle road switchers arrived just two months after Baldwin had delivered ten brand-new 2-6-6-2 Mallet compound locomotives for mine run service in the Logan field! These were the last new steam locomotives delivered by any of the Big Three stream builders to a domestic customer. Interestingly, all ten 2-6-6-2s were permanently withdrawn from service by late summer of 1956. The big Baldwin diesel road switchers, in general, lasted in C&O service for 11 or 12 more years.