Nostalgia & History > A Pennsy Century 636 in Stockton, CA

Ordered by the PRR, delivered to the Penn Central just after the merger(in 4/68 as the PC6342), and later retired by Conrail during their purge of Alcos, one big Century wound up at the Port of Stockton in the early 1980's. Delta Bulk Terminal C636 1001 spent the better part of 20 years toiling in near-obscurity out at the port and seemed to be one of California railroadings' best kept secrets. Primary duty was switching hoppers of Utah originated coal for export.

The unit was repatriated back east in January 2002 and became Delaware-Lackawanna 3642 in Scranton, PA. A swap of power resulted in DBT acquiring a former UP C30-7 which switches the terminal today. Is the DL 3642 in service and would that make it the only operable C636 in the country?

DBT 1001 is seen in fresh paint(no, its not patched Conrail blue) at the Port of Stockton, CA in February 1983.

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DBT 1001 at Stockton, CA, Feb. '83.

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One of Alco's biggest and baddest--and one of its last.....

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Nice stuff! This unit is running currently on the D-L, and no it's not the only C636 running. Susquehanna is leasing two ex-Cartier C636's that were two of the three Alco demos. Who'd'a thunk it?

Walt

That's a great first shot, what a stumpy muscular SOB!

NH2006 Wrote:

> That's a great first shot, what a stumpy muscular
> SOB!

When I first saw 1001 in person, I was struck at how chunky it looked. I was expecting something long and lean. I think I read that the C636 sat a few inches higher than the C630, which may explain the difference in appearance.

I watched that girl switch slateford junction in 2003 with sister m630 on D-L. There is a road that curves up at slateford so you can look down slightly on the top of the locos. It's neat to watch the fan/dissipator slats/blades moving and hearing that big-c chug!

You & I were over there about the same time...I got it one day when the paint was still crisp & in good afternoon light. Should have tried harder to catch her at work.

Nice shots of the big girl. I looked for Delta Bulk a couple times over the years as I passed through Stockton...Never took enough time to really try and find it though. As mentioned before, there are two ex Cartier, ex Alco Demo C636's in NY. The 78 is certainly active on NYS&W as are at least 2 M636's.

The C636 was Alco's last gasp effort to stay in the domestic locomotive building business. Their final road unit was something to see, capable of delivering it's 3,600 HP using 4 fewer Cylinders than the SD45 - it was a state of the art marvel of the time. It was also the end of the line as Alco was on it's death bed at the time and no single locomotive model, not even one as advanced as the C636 could reverse the market for them. a total of 34 of these were built (15 for PC, 6 for ICG, 10 SP&S and 3 demos) for North American use. Many more were built for Ore train service under licence in Austrailia and if you think this one looks tough, check out one of the Robe River units "down under" - Pictured is one of their MLW M636's, but the idea is essentially the same. http://www.railways.pilbara.net.au/robe-8.htm
The Aussies had both C and M636's...

Anyway, it's great that a few of the big Alcos are still at work. They are something to see. Thanks much for sharing

Brian E

I have been told by a friend (who is usually not a crackpot) that the Santa Fe loved their DL600B's so much that they considered ordering 50-100 C636's. They invited Alco to test the demos on the Transcon, but after two of the three demos died on Cajon, Santa Fe showed Alco the door and went for more SD45's and U33C's. Can anybody on the Left Coast confirm this tale, and better yet, does anyone have shots of the 636 demos on the Santa Fe?

Walt

Santa Fe also asked Alco to big on the project to provide power for the Super C and replacement power for the passenger trains. SF wanted the cowl design and EMD provided the F45/FP45, GE made the U28CG and U30CG. Alco bid too and their proposal was the C636F. Drawings show that it would have featured a standard Century Cab and a cowl body. Ooooo

As for the "Gators", I've heard that SF loved them but that like most others, found that the cost per mile was higher than the competition (SD24's in this case).

I've heard the stories of the Demos and how badly they did on ATSF as well (they worked the WP at about the same time). The odd thing about the C636 demos is that they were out-shopped in November of 68, about 6 weeks before line shut down at Alco. They toured several roads including SF AFTER the factory had ceased locomotive Manufacture...


Brian E

Back in the winter of '72, Joe Ward & I found ourselves in K Falls on a Sunday with time to kill. There was a set of 4 of these SP&S C-636's getting set to be put on a train for Bend & eventually Portland. Well, Joe gets this gleam in his eye & asks a hostler if we could ride & the guy mumbles something about how he didn't see anything, so we both get on the 3rd one in the consist. One of the neatest rides in my life. I took a couple of slides of the speedometer showing how fast we were going along Klamath Lake. Those babies could boogie, even with a big train!

Evan Werkema wrote:

"I think I read that the C636 sat a few inches higher than the C630, which may explain the difference in appearance."

The height difference might have been due to the Hi-Ad trucks. I wonder if there was a height difference between the two Reading 630 orders, one with Tri-mount trucks and the other with Hi-Ad.

Walt

The 636 demos have had pretty incredible careers. They were leased out for a while, then Morrison-Knudsen bought them and they worked on several M-K construction jobs. They went to Australia (for M-K?) and, incredibly, came back. Their last regular gig was on the Cartier, and now two remain, leased to the Susquehanna. Not bad for a couple of oddball orphans.

Walt