Re: D&S/ Georgetown Loop No. 9 History

THis might be the engine they bought from Roaring Camp several years ago. The trucks were by the fence and the rest of the loco was behind the shop, maybe they put it back together. If it is, I surveyed it around 2007 at Roaring Camp for Sumpter Valley. One diesel was in parts, the other side of the cab had been sideswiped at one time and poorly repaired, and it had been heavily modified with an early form of remote control. If it ran at Roaring Camp, it was inlimited use for a short time. Due to its poor condition, SVRR instead decided to buy the 720 from Panama. It wasn't in that much better shape but it was a light road design instead of a steel mill switcher.

There were three common GE designs for steel mill use. The first that dated before the war (and also built by others) was a "50 ton" that was actually in their catalog. It was built in a variety of gauges, the #21 at the Loop is a later generation of this model modified to 44 tons. The above photo is of a "Steel Mill Special" which is a narrow gauge B+B variation of the standard GE "45 ton" - Golden, Pine Creek, Fish Camp and Huckleberry(?) have examples of this design. These are only one traction motor per truck, powering the other axle by a chain, 300/270hp as built. Typically these were ballasted to around 55 tons. The #9 from Durango is another B+B variation for steel mill use of the standard GE 65/80ton model. These have four traction motors, are listed as 550 hp but actually listed as 470/420 hp as built, and are typically 80 tons or heavier.

All three locomotives typically use the GE733/741/763 family of traction motors and a double reduction gear unit. Top speed is 15-20 mph before you disintegrate the traction motors due to centrifugal force, but there were triple reduction gear units and higher gear ratios available.

One of the drawbacks to narrow gauge in the US is that there were so few 36" gauge diesel-electric road locomotives in North America. There was SP #1, 47 tons in Hawaii, the three USP 70 tons, USG, WP&Y, the two Army units that tested on the DRGW, anything else? Newfoundland had a variety of 42" gauge units, only the 47 tons could be modified to 36" gauge.

Everything else pretty well was either a diesel-gas/mechanical or a 25 ton type, or a steel mill engine. Those for steel mill service are generally ballasted heavy with fairly low horsepower and limited to lw speed. They were never intended to be road units, and don't usually even have train air. They typically switched a buffer car connected to ingot buggies. Does anyone even know of any steel mill still using narrow gauge rail or have they all been closed or switched over to heavy wheeled equipment?