Subject:
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Re: LEGO Desert Express
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.build
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Date:
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Thu, 21 Dec 2000 11:54:45 GMT
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Viewed:
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848 times
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In lugnet.build, Holger Matthes writes:
> Hi Larry,
>
> just one question: What do you mean with "Alco C420"??? Is that the name of the
> engine?? Sorry I have no idea about the manufacturer of the real one.
Alco, or American Locomotive Works, was a US major steam engine builder who
entered the Diesel marketplace, first in partnership with GE for electricals
and then alone after GE decided to do it all. At one point Alco was #2
behind EMD. The eventually exited the market (in the 70s??) but for a while
after (well into the 80s??), their subsidiary Montreal Locomotive Works made
locos using their designs and tooling, later extending it somewhat, and MLW
units were quite prevalent on CN and CP until quite recently. Many MLWs have
safety cabs and they actually were one of the first manufacturers to do full
width cabs on road switchers.
The C420 was a second generation road switcher with a relatively long front
short hood and got the nickname alligator or alligator nose (the missing
space was a typo, er cosmic ray problem in transmission, ya, that's it)
because of that long front hood. I don't think it was made in a high nose
version.
The TransNabib loco, especially your rendering. evokes the C420 Alligator to
me although I have no idea of the provenance. Alco was a big player in the
export market so it's possible it's an Alco underneath. (the long hood looks
Alcoish to me)
BTW, Alco-GE made what I consider to be the most beautiful loco ever, the
PA, which one of my first models ever, (now 3 years old and quite primitive
in my eyes) Big Red, is an homage too. It also had a long nose.
For whatever reason Alcos have a distinctive burble exhaust sound, if you've
ever heard one you'd remember it for ever, Way different than EMD or GE.
They also had notorious problems with sooting, many Alcos a bit out of tune
tend to put huge clouds of black smoke out when accelerating and the
generator is under load, loading the prime mover. I think it was a turbo
problem but I forget exactly.
>
> I really love "alligatornose"!! The first version had a 6-wide nose and a
> 5-wide part behind the cabin. But I decided to do it in 5-wide also: The blue
> antenna, or what you call "alligatornose" is centered! It wasn't centered in
> the 6-wide version. Good to have it changed!!
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: LEGO Desert Express
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| (...) the (...) Misteak- American Loco Company, Schenctady, NY (...) no, seperate company, not subsidiary. MLW was bought out by Bombardier, who made the last ALCO engined (251 type) engines. I believe the rights to 251's are now held by (...) (24 years ago, 21-Dec-00, to lugnet.trains)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: LEGO Desert Express
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| Hi Larry, just one question: What do you mean with "Alco C420"??? Is that the name of the engine?? Sorry I have no idea about the manufacturer of the real one. I really love "alligatornose"!! The first version had a 6-wide nose and a 5-wide part (...) (24 years ago, 21-Dec-00, to lugnet.build)
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