| Rock Island Alco C415 422 at the Rocket House near 47th Street in Chicago, Illinois on an unknown day in June 1978, Kodachrome by Chuck Zeiler. In an obvious state of disrepair, this locomotive was built in October 1966 (c/n 3451-08), one of ten on the Rock Island, one of five owned by the UP (#'s 420-424) and leased to the RI. Upon the demise of the RI, the UP's units were returned and stored in Omaha. This particular unit was sold to Brandon Corporation on June 23, 1981 and used for parts, finally scrapped sometime after February 1990. The prime mover, main generator and equipment blowers were located in the longer of the two hoods. The prime mover was an 8-cylinder model 8-251E, which was very unreliable and very off balanced. A drive shaft from the prime mover ran underneath the cab floor to the shorter of the two hoods, where it ran the air compressor and fan clutch mechanism. The off-centered location of the prime mover caused the locomotive to be badly off balance, leading to excessive wheel slip and wheel wear. The cooling system was also problematic, as coolant had to be transported from the prime mover at one end of the unit through a series of pipes (prone to leakage) to the radiator at the other end of the unit. |