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12/18/2024
 
 
 
 
 
Owner: Chicago Burlington & Quincy
Model:Alco S2Built As:CBQ 9307 (S2)
Serial Number:69871Order No:S-1889
Frame Number:prime mover # 3806Built:3/1044
Notes:blt 3/1944, retired 10/1969
Other locos with this serial:  CBQ 9307(S2)
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CB&Q S2 9307
Title:  CB&Q S2 9307
Description:  Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad S2 9307 at Denver Union Station on August 20, 1964, Ektachrome by Chuck Zeiler. This locomotive was built in March 1944 (c/n 69871) and was retired in October 1969 and traded to GE for new power. However, GE sold this locomotive and all rest of CB&Q's Alco S2's to Precision National Corp, and the Alcos were shipped to Mt. Vernon, Illinois, and with the exception of #9300 all were scrapped and the usable parts stockpiled. It is seen here about to back down to couple to the rear of the CB&Q's Denver Zephyr (DZ) and add the Colorado Springs connection cars to the train. I was fortunate to ride the DZ in the summer of 1964. The connection to Colorado Springs consisted of a Vista-Dome chair car, a 10-6 Pullman sleeper, a Slumbercoach and a "Chuck Wagon" Vista-Dome buffet-lounge, and on this particular day, a borrowed GN coach. These cars were hauled from Denver to Colorado Springs and return on the D&RGW's Royal Gorge. Upon return to Denver, the CB&Q's station switcher would disassemble the waiting DZ, take the rear cars over to the track the Royal Gorge was on, couple to the rear cars of the Royal Gorge (the Colorado Springs connection cars), and reassemble the DZ for the trip to Chicago. This gave me the opportunity to jump off and snap a couple of photos.
Photo Date:  8/20/1964  Upload Date: 12/11/2008 11:37:40 AM
Location:  Denver, CO
Author:  Chuck Zeiler
Categories:  Roster
Locomotives:  CBQ 9307(S2)
Views:  1131   Comments: 2
CB&Q S2 9307
Title:  CB&Q S2 9307
Description:  Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad Alco S-2 9307 at Denver Union Station on August 20, 1964, Ektachrome by Chuck Zeiler. It might be a new front coupler, I could see chalk marks on the shank. That's a CB&Q exhaust stack.
Photo Date:  8/20/1964  Upload Date: 3/11/2014 1:38:26 PM
Location:  Denver, CO
Author:  Chuck Zeiler
Categories:  Roster
Locomotives:  CBQ 9307(S2)
Views:  602   Comments: 1
CB&Q S2 9307
Title:  CB&Q S2 9307
Description:  Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad Alco S-2 9307 at Denver Union Station on August 20, 1964, Ektachrome by Chuck Zeiler. Built March 1944 (c/n 69871) on order S1889, it was retired October 1969 and scrapped. It is pictured assembling the eastbound Denver Zephyr. I happened to be a passenger on the Colorado Springs connection of this train. Upon arrival of the connection from Colorado Springs, the cars were switched into the waiting DX, and the train re-assembled for its overnight run to Chicago, thus allowing me time to get off and snap this photo. The following is excerpted from the Burlington Route Historical Society's Bulletin #2, edited by F. Hol Wagner: At the start of World War II, the three major U.S. manufacturers of diesel locomotives offered or were preparing to offer a full line of motive power - passeoger, freight and switching. In 1942 however, the War Production Board's Transportation Equipment Branch assumed control over the country's production facilities and soon decided that production of passenger locombtives should be suspended for the duration of the war. The WPB's General Limitation Order No. 97 (adopted April 4, 1942) further ordered Electro-Motive Division to halt switcher productikn and to concentrate on manufacture of its proven freight locomotive, the FT. Both Alco and Baldwin were restricted to the manufacture of all of the switchers (the restriction was to 1000 or less horsepower locomotives) needed by America's railroads, and production of road freight power in Schenectady and Eddystone was suspended until 1945. So it was when the Q found itself in dire need of additional switching power in 1942, the road turned not to EMD, from which it had received 43 switchers (both 600 and 1000 horsepower designs) since 1937, but instead to the WPB. The Washington bureaucrats cared not about standardization, minimization of parts inventory, or operating characteristics; they simply doled out switchers to railroads as the units were turned out by Alco and Baldwin. Of the 39 switchers alloted to the Q during the war, 30 were built by Baldwin, with the remaining nine coming from Alco. The Alco S-2's were numbered 9300-9308 and were equipped with the Model 539 inline six-cylinder turbocharged 1000 horsepower prime mover.!They rode on Alco's unique Blunt trucks and featured General Electric electrical components, which accounts for their billing as "Alco-GE" products. Delivered in three orders, the first two S-2's (built on order S1885) arrived in April 1943, and were assigned to service in and around Chicago. Units 9302-9305 (built on&order S1915) arrived in December 1943, and were placed in service at Lincoln. The final units of the group, 9306-9308 (built on order S1889), came in March 1944. Numbgr 9306 joined its four sisters at Lincoln, while 9307-9308 were assigned to Chicago. In November 1944, all the Chicago units except 9308 moved west to Lincoln, zeplaced in the Windy City by new Baldwin VO-1000's. And so the situation remained until after the war. In 1948, when EMD switchers were once again being delivered, all the S-2's moved further west. Units 9302 and 9306 took up residence in Alliance, and the other seven went to Denver, where they would remain for the rest of their careers on the Q. The two units in Alliance moved to Denver in 1958, and for the first time, all nine S-2's were assigned to the same location, much to the relief of the Stores Department. Considerably lighter than their Baldwin and EMD counterparts (231,890 lbs., versus 241,620 lbs. for a VO-1000, and 249,900 lbs. for a pre-war NW-2), the 9300's were still popular with engine crews and moved their share of tonnage in the yards and industrial districts of both Lines East and Lines West. They here also frequently used as passenger switchers. Twenty Five years is the most commonly cited figure for the economic lifespan of a diesel switcher, and so it was with the 9300's. They were all retired in 1%69.
Photo Date:  8/20/1964  Upload Date: 3/16/2008 6:20:54 PM
Location:  Denver, CO
Author:  Chuck Zeiler
Categories:  Station
Locomotives:  CBQ 9307(S2)
Views:  808   Comments: 0


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