I do indeed have the GE Tachometer in a box, along with the adapter plug for the "3-phase" receptacle in the electrical cabinet. All of our 244 locomotives have "plain amplidyne", with "MG6D1" governors.

This discussion showed up on RYPN soon after a flurry of questions on the railroad enthusiast grapevine about whether historical documentation exists covering certain other classic first generation diesels. In view of this I have to ask what seems to be a rather obvious question.

Despite having chapters all over the country, our various national railroad historical groups seem to have missed the opportunity to tape interviews with the designers and builders of the first generation diesels, just as they missed the opportunity to tape interviews with the designers and builders of steam locomotives. Most of these people who designed and constructed the locomotives in the 1930s through 1960s have passed away now and questions about the existence of taped interviews always seem to get no response.

Are we also missing the opportunity to preserve "archive quality" tape recordings of the various builders first generation diesels themselves? Are any historical groups making a determined effort to gather and preserve really high quality recordings (as opposed to just videotape with all its distractions) of the various makes and models of diesel locomotives at work, or is this being left to the model railroaders who are trying to get accurate sounds for digital control systems?

I ask this because most videotapes I have seen are not really done with preserving the sound as the primary objective, it is just background for the visual presentation and often is degraded by onlookers comments and other noises.

Comments?

MX (Obviously Not My Real Name)

Try to get a copy of the Pentrex video of the "Arkansa & Missouri RR--Alcos in the Ozarks," produced back in the late 1980s. This tape has extensive footage of the A&M's RS1 No. 22 idling and in full throtle. I can't speak of the condition of No. 22's 244 engine at the time (altho Randy Hanold and his shop crew did a great job maintaining all the A&M's Alcos). But No. 22 had all the classic sounds including that (supercharger?) whistle that was so typical of the RS1's.

Beautiful tape.

A&M 22 is a great looking loco, but it won't give a clue to how a 244 sounds-- it has an in-line 6 cylinder 539 engine under that shiny maroon hood.

Anyone interested in 244-powered RS-3s on video might consider the Classic Trains Magazine tape "Amazing Alcos", shot by Paul Schneider. It has some nice footage of the D&H RS-3 at Scranton, and a few minutes of RMNE's NH 529.

There are also 251 and 539 powered Alco locomotives on that program.

There are a whole host of minor defects on the electrical side (ranging from weak pilot valve springs to leaky caps in the stabilizing circuit) that can wreak havoc with the idle setting.

That said, it sounds like you've done a super job on that beast.

It is the nature of the engine speed circuit to be unstable in the lower notches-so any slight mechanical irregularities on the fuel injection side are actually magnified and reflected in the engines' inability to hold speed. Of course, the cheap and dirty way to fix things is to raise the idle to 400 rpm :-(

An interesting first hand lesson on why the railroads preferred the competitors' products vs. those of Alco.

DPK

Two thoughts come to mind....just perusing a copy of "The Railroad Press" magazine, issue #73 (Apr/May/June 2007), and (a) there is an ad for a book available from Chris MacDermot (believe his Alco expertise spans 33 years), with more than 300 pages of trouble-shooting, system adjustments, specifications, testing procedures, etc. I am not plugging this book, just mentioning its availability. (b) same magazine, different ad-this time for "vintage professional audio CDs", one being "Alco Audio 4" and "Rare Alco PAs and turbines", available from a Jay Winn.

Again, I have no financial or other interest in this, am not plugging, etc-just thought that this might be of use to someone.

MX,

I am at the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum, a project of the Rochester Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. I have been making high quality digital recordings of many of our engines and other pieces of both railroad and construction equipment for several years. We have been sharing some of them via our website as lower quality MP3s to keep the bandwidth down, but the original recordings are preserved. I also someday hope to be able to offer many of them on a CD.

As always, I am sure we have not done enough, nor can we cover every operating facet on our 10MPH two-mile mainline, but we are trying. Here is what we have on our site as of now:

http://www.rgvrrm.org/about/sounds/museum/index.htm

We also have sounds from beyond our museum:

http://www.rgvrrm.org/about/sounds/beyond/index.htm

With more to come...

Regards,
Chris Hauf
R&GVRRM - http://www.rgvrrm.org/

Chris, good to hear that you are pursuing this. These things are easily overlooked, but when the equipment is gone or all the surviving examples are inoperable, the opportunity is gone too, and just as permanently as the opportunity has been lost to record interviews with the people who designed it.

MX

Is anyone in need of said tach-in-a-box? I'm trying to determine the value of one.

One thing to note about 244's. When new they had air-cooled turbochargers and in the 1950's almost everybody installed water-cooled turbos for increased reliability.

An earlier note in this thread says Delaware-Lackawanna has RS-3's. They do indeed; they have 4 of them in service; 3 ex-D&H; 1 ex-CNJ. Needless to say these are not mint in the original Alco box but reflect 60 years of getting them to run better.

Phil Mulligan

The Delaware and Lackawanna hosts a amazing collection of Alco and MLW products I found this video taken about 10 years ago. After the RS3's were released Probably the closest thing to a factory fresh 244 we will ever hear. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EFGSiK29FU

Try this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdGY6v9-D9I&t=38s

-JH

Or this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OnujXusnPI

What about the youtube videos of Delaware and Lackawanna's RS3's I assume they are still 244 powered and seem to be in top shape in those videos. I know that lines mechanic is a big Alco fan and keeps them in fine tune from what I have read online. Mike

Just to refresh my memory about what a good running 244 should sound like, I clicked on the link that the Alco Kid posted, with one of D-L's units featured. I often read comments on Youtube, and was struck by the guy that says that the idle is a bit high. If anyone knows where a 244, 251 or 539 should idle, it is Don Colangelo. You gotta love the know-it-all foamers.