Agreed

ALCO had 1 JOB to make the C855 great: USE COPPER

Railfan 75 yrs in MN 🥶...the RS 2 & 3 just a nice design and sound,🐎

​@@madmonsterbbb9131That ALONE would have made it great.😊

Hey I know you might not be interested but you know about the Aerotrain?

What source did you use to find that out? I’m embarrassed I never heard of such a thing.

@@AndrewTheRocketCityRailfan4014 I had read about it years ago, but I've forgotten the source. However, a poster on the O-Gauge forums also knew about it, and it was his post that I quoted.

Fremont Nebraska is my hometown by the time they made the ALCO C855. I wasn't even close to born yet. I'm shocked I've never heard about it. As two members in my family were railroad engineers. And the last one that my grandfather rode in was the U33C.

I’ll make note of that when I review the DH-643. Reminds me of my My Engines of Pere Marquette series since some info in these videos can’t be found in the internet but books I have

I want a copy of that book in my possession by the time I do the DH-643 episode

Plus Always put time and research in your work

Mhm Aluminum should be used for Heat syncs for Curcuits

@Sean Embry copper and Aluminum alloy

GE didn’t learn from that either with the U50 and U50C

That's a fact.😁😎😊

Not just that but they had basically become used to using Aluminum normally. Maybe if alco lasted into the 90's they might have made a course correction like GE at the time and we might have seen a bit more variety on thebrails today :)

@@mamarussellthepie3995 It was pretty much short sightedness on the part of ALCo bosses. When GE made the split from them, that should have told them something was up and go looking around the world for a new electrical supplier. EMD went to ASEA of Sweden for the GM electrics, and the AEM7's. If ALCo was thinking, that could have been them!

@@gordonvincent731 That would have so cool! 😎

The DH643 actually ran for a reasonably long time on the SP (at least longer than the KM Hydraulics and the C855).

Similar issues indeed, with the addition of the drawbacks of diesel hydraulic locomotives. And yes I’ve watched High Iron’s video on the Kraus Maffia ML4000CC(which were also diesel hydraulic locomotives and the most well known example of such locomotives in the US).

It would have if GE not gotten fed up with ALCO’s failures and betrayed them. Once GE ended its partnership with ALCO and proved it could do better, ALCO was screwed. Also, UP would have been far Morley likely to donate an 855 if they had reworded it with copper wires. I still don’t get why they didn’t.

Aparently the other demonstrator was bought by the seaboard air line?

I refer to the GP-30 as the BL-3. The one oddball locomotive transitioning to the 2nd generation. The GP/SD-35 Cab and body set the standard for years

The first 2

True, I am basically what the Nostalgia Critic would be if he reviewed bad trains instead of bad movies

Feel free to show in a reply whenever you want pal.

It's on my list

Perhaps the aluminum wires. I might have mis-read something about them in a source and possibly confused them with the 244 engines. I didn't know my ALCO history yet, not until I discovered "The ALCO Diesel Guy" a few months later. And I will use him as a source for future videos about other ALCO flops and my plan for a video discussing the fall of ALCO.

@@AndrewTheRocketCityRailfan4014 the 244's definitely had their issues. They were ok, but they weren't as good as 251's.

@@AndrewTheRocketCityRailfan4014 It's unfortunate, but I'd argue the 244s did more damage to Alco's reputation than any one individual locomotive. It's important to note the context of the time period, as the 244s were being developed during the later years of WW2, at which time Alco was extremely limited on how much development work they could do due to government restictions. The 244s were rushed because Alco needed a replacement for the aging 539 design that could also compete with EMD, who was starting to surge ahead in the road diesel market. Had the 244 been a more successful design, the lower manufacturing costs of a single engine passenger unit with 2000hp (in the PA-1), would have been a significant factor in drawing customers away from EMD, who had to rely on (more expensive to produce) dual engined units at the time for those higher HP numbers. This however, is not to say that Alco's only reason for failure was being screwed over by wartime restrictions. They were near unwilling to adapt to changes in marketing and slow to commit to diesel development, holding full belief well into the 50s that steam would continue to be the superior locomotive type. The 251s were fantastic power plants that, to my knowledge, are/were recently still having replacement parts built by Fairbanks-Morse, who acquired the rights to the design possibly from Bombardier. Unfortunately, they were too little, too late, especially when combined with Alco's other mishaps. The 251 engined RS11 however, is a great example of what Alco could build at their best. Sorry for the long comment

Weight saving, since they were already on the very limit of what the rails could take at the time.

Alright

ALCO also did it to save on construction costs, which I disagree with them doing since it’s alittle cheap and lazy.

Cost. They also tried to use aluminum in house wiring in the late 1960's to the early 1970's, which resulted in many fires at the connections. The connections were designed for use with copper wire and aluminum expands at a different rate than copper, this caused the connections to loosen up and overheat causing a fire.

Correct!

You have an HO scale C855?

@@ReadingAreaRailfan Yes I have the Alco's C-855 A-B-A all three. They run rough, but they are used as display only...

@@michaelwthalman who made them?

Real or Model?

@@strobx1 Real loco Locomotive all copper wire in them all ALCO units the problem was a crankshaft as the ALCO PA did alco . In 1969 it was a violent strike that kill ALCO then then GE did U50C with aluminum wire, U.P.RR SOLD all there ALCO units they could not get parts for them . GE bought out ALCO

@@PWaco-yq7wr Ok. FYI Fairbanks Morse bought out Alco for large engines. Here's Wikipedia "Is Alco power still in business? 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."

Possible, prioritizing profit over people or equality can go really wrong.

The BL2 might be one of them.

Every company puts out a flop. Every ALco diesel put on the rails was an unreliable pile of crap directly from the manufacturing plant.

​@@strobx1 dont forget the SD50s

Rushed research on that bit, I was still having to deal with school and was excited to make this video. I’ll correct it in future videos

Correct. Note I was different back then, and my ability to do unrushed research wasn't as it is now. People can change in a quick time frame.

@@AndrewTheRocketCityRailfan4014 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Old you ALCO and New you EMD. That's a good one too. Seriously, it is that way + you're right cuz duh. With doing sth. more often and with better research makes it better. I got that.

1. Wouldn’t be on the series if ALCO didn’t use aluminum wires. 2. Yes, I know what happened to History In The Dark, I’ll get my revenge for him one day. Fortunately, I do American locomotives too often

@@djavidianmx1832 Just went for American locomotives for a bit. I’ll make a return to British locomotives soon

Okay fine, says an less angrier future me.

Partly mismanagement. Yes they the only Ex-steam builders in America that actually tried to make good diesels to compete with EMD. But unfortunately their management was not the best shape. Mismanagement was one of the key factors that did eventually lead to the company's demise.

Wrong answer bud. They did collaborate. They’d been in a partnership with GE well before it

Parodying the Nostalgia Critic; as well as figuring out the random kinds of voices I can pull off. I stopped doing it though beginning with the Triplex episode.

I agree with you about Argentine shops being the proving grounds for GE locomotives. If it hadn't been for Santa Fe building the SF30C and the solitary SF30B, GE wouldn't have been able to build the Dash 8 series.

@@robertlay9368 I WORKED AS A MACHINIST, BUT I KNEW ELECTRICAL AS WELL! DID A LOT OF TROUBLE SHOOTING AND ALSO RODE THEM ON THE ROAD!

Dude could you not use caps lock

@@AndrewTheRocketCityRailfan4014 I HAVE USED CELL PHONES SINCE 1995 AND USED TEXTING AS SOON AS WAS AVAILABLE! WITH THE TINY SCREENS AND TINY KEYBOARDS, I HAVE ALWAYS USED LARGE LETTERS EVER SINCE FOR ACCURACY AND READ ABILITY! NOBODY BITCHED ABOUT THIS IN THOSE EARLY DAYS !

@@rossbryan6102 THANKFULLY HERE IN AMERICA WE CAN TYPE HOWEVER WE LIKE!!! 👍 LOL