Hudsons on ACL?

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Did the ACL ever consider a 4-6-4 Hudson steam locomotive for main line passenger service?

-- Richard Lasater (richard.lasater@ncmail.net), February 18, 2004

Answers

I'm certain Bill Sellers knows of what he speaks, but I would like to correct one small error in his response. The ACL did, indeed, own several Mountain (4-8-2) types prior to the absorption of the AB&C. In 1943 the ACL, in dire need of additional passenger power, wanted to lease several of these engines from the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad. The DL&W refused to lease the engines but would sell them, so the Coast Line purchased them outright. No.s 1401-1405 were on the roster approximately 2 1/2 to three years prior to the acquisition of the AB&C's engines of this type.

Bob Hanson

-- Robert H. Hanson (RHanson669@aol.com), February 23, 2004.


Richard: I have fired about every class locomotive on the ACL roster from 0-6-0 and 0-8-0 yard goats to R-1 1800 class Northerns at onetime or another and I have yet to hear of the ACL ever having used a Hudson type locomotive on the system. The ACL motive power department was concerned with weight on the drivers which a Hudson locomotive was sadly lacking. Standard heavyweight passenger equipment required both tractive effort for acceleration and large diameter drivers for speed.The ACl never had a Mountain type 4-8-2 locomotive to call their own until 1946 when they absorbed the AB&C Railroad, which was already using 4-8-2's account of gradients peculiar to western Georgia and Alabama. The only reason the NYC used Hudsons was that their track profile was as flat as a kitchen table on the mainline. True, BC Rail used the Royal Hudson, but it was limited to pulling one train set that kept it's same identity on each round-trip between North Vancouver and Squamish, B.C. to accomodate tourists and railfans.

-- Bill Sellers (was2nd@charter.net), February 18, 2004.

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