Alco PA The complete story

IMHO, the PA is the most aesthetically appealing first generation road diesel.

Quite a bit of railroad history there. Learned much about ALCOs! Thanks so much.

Enjoyable video. It brought back a memory of being at Richmond, California, for the last run of the PA’s on the Santa Fe. Standing next to the lead unit I felt so impressed by its huge size and image of tremendous power. I can never equate this with the “toaster” origin in its design heritage. What a fantastic show it’s departure provided with the roar of the engines and black smoke. My friend, Don, and I got chills at the magnificent sight and the historical significance this experience provided. A note: somehow, both SP and ATSF must have figured out what it took to get value from these locomotives, for they racked up millions of miles in service and lasted a long time in heavy use. Also, unlike Santa Fe, the SP rewire job allowed her units to MU with EMD units, so locomotives were mixed when needed.

I thought a big reason Alco stuck with steam was because during WWII they were actually required by the government to continue to produce steam engines whereas EMD got the contract to provide diesel electrics. EMD got a huge boost in the post-war market from experience gained.

It's too bad the the 244 prime mover basically doomed the company. Alco really had some good locomotives on paper. Still love the old RS3's.

I own a couple of ho scale vintage Athearn analog Alco PA1's painted in the New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroad schemes and a single PB1 in New York Central. Thanks for uploading this information about this locomotive manufacturer.

One of my favorite alco locomotive besides the rs3

Here in Mexico, 2 ALCOPA survive, one with the daylight colors of SP and the other with those of the Mexican railway and the latter still works.

The ALCO PA's were one of the most beautiful locomotive that ever been made. Save what's left of them.

My favorite locomotive. Pity that it was rushed.

I actually have an HO scale Southern Railway Alco PA, and it's a very beautiful locomotive, not to mention a smooth and quiet runner. It is also a really good hauler.

The prime mover wasn't the only problem with the PA1. The electrical was a problem that cause many electrical fires. It forced the Espee to redo the wiring on all it's units and Santa Fe followed suit.

Thanks for sharing this very informative video about this classic American Diesel locomotive.

This locomotive looks right at home in the SW US and northern Mexico

As a machinist...I understand the demands of percise machining....and quality control.

SP preferred PA's for passenger service over any EMD for use on Donner Pass and other challenging routes due to the robust GE traction motors and superior dynamic brake capacity. Despite this, SP embarked upon a in house upgrade to it's PA fleet in 1952 to improve turbo reliability and simply wiring with the first use of modular electrical components, naturally this program was of great interest to Alco who lent there support to these improvements. Upon rebuilding SP classified them as PA3's they proved extremely reliable not being retired until 1967.

Interesting that this video used some models to show how the locos looked. Turbochargers experience turbo lag where there is slow response to the throttle and smoke during acceleration resulting from inadequate air supply. EMD eventually worked around that by adding a mechanical blower that cut out once the locomotive reached a higher speed, and so ALCO was using insufficiently developed technology.

This is all good information, but the narration sounds a bit rough around the edges, like the script hasn't been read aloud very much before recording the video. Take time to rehearse and read the script aloud for a while to let your mouth get used to the script which will smooth out the delivery. Also record yourself when rehearsing your script so you can listen and identify spots that still sound rough and to identify spots in the script you might decide need rewording. As a music student I had to do the same thing, just with music, and it proved most enlightening and helpful when trying to make improvements for myself. Good stuff, just needs a bit of polish.

Southern Pacific was another railroad that kept it's PAs well into the 1960s. Also, one unintended benefit of the PA's long front end was better protection from grade crossing accidents.

Cometary may of been rushed but its a good history lesson for all. Where I live the PA was cloned because federal money didn't come so they coped it & put a British submarine motor in it instead. Enter the South Australian Railways 900 class. Australia had a load of Alcos built under licence for years after that.