Nostalgia & History > Emporia, KS. Alco switcher

I took this at the West end of the Emporia yard in the Spring of 74.

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Always thought of Santa Fe's Alco switchers, other than the Dearborn RS-1's, as mostly Coast Lines locomotives. How common were they in Kansas?

there were several around Emporia when I took this one, but not sure how many or for how long.

Here are a couple more taken at Emporia on the same day. Another Alco the 2382, at the East end, and FM 608.

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ddg Wrote:

> Here are a couple more taken at Emporia on the
> same day. Another Alco the 2382, at the East end,
> and FM 608.

FM switchers are more what I think about for that part of the system - sort of the border between the FM switcher territory east toward Chicago and Baldwin switcher territory west into Kansas and Texas. Of course, by 1974, any remaining FM's and Baldwins were staring retirement in the face. The Alcos weren't far behind, but I wonder if maybe able-bodied Alcos displaced by CF7's out west were beginning to drift east as stopgaps to allow the other minority-builder switchers to be retired.

The 608 is the H12-44 that was preserved as part of Santa Fe's "historic locomotive" collection, and is currently stored at CSRM in Sacramento, CA. It was one of several former 503-class H12-44's that got renumbered (crudely) into the 600's to "avoid conflict" with the new Amtrak 500-series SDP40F's. By the time SDP40F deliveries reached the 600's, the FM's were gone.