Alco FPA-2, Alco's forgotten passenger locomotive.

The Green Bay & Western Railroad’s first mainline diesels were ALCo FAs and from many reports crews did not like them but they did keep buying diesels from ALCo and ran ALCos up into when they were bought out by Wisconsin Central in the 90s repeatedly rebuilding them

A highly flawed video at best. E-units were light enough and easy enough on the rails that most railroads had no need to upgrade their lines. This was actually a selling point for diesels in general, and the E-units were no exception. Nor were they particularly inefficient compared to F-units, other than having idler axles that couldn't put tractive effort to the rail. For trains of a certain weight, a single E-unit was far superior in cost, fuel-economy, and overall efficiency to a pair of F-units. This was particularly true of the FTs which had no room in the A-unit for a steam boiler and made a 2-unit consist mandatory. A number of other railroads also lacked steam boilers in their later passenger A-units, notably AT&SF and B&M. I've seen many photos of small, short trains that could have been far more efficiently handled by a single E-unit being pulled by a pair of Fs. The FP7, FP9, and FPA-2 were for very small trains that could be handled by a single small unit, backup power that could also work freight trains, extra power for larger-than-normal trains, and service in mountainous territory unsuited for A1A-trucked locomotives. Santa Fe's mountainous territory was the real reason for their preference for Fs. They decided that a top speed of 109 mph was enough for their purposes, and that the extra 8 mph an E could offer wasn't justified in most cases. Their Es would find ample work on many secondary trains that were too small for two Fs. Many were ordered with freight gearing with top speeds as low as 65 mph. Several railroads ordered their PAs and Es with low-speed gearing, too, notably MEC and SSW. MP had 19 FPA-2s, but the 12 that were ordered as ABA sets may have been 6 FPA-2/FB-2/FPA-2 sets.

CN rebuilt 2 with 251 engines which were successful. They paved the way for the FPA-4.

Interesting to learn about ALCO engines. You don't generally hear much about them. Thanks for your videos.

Thanks for the ALCO information. A beautiful little Sister to the PA locomotive in my estimation. Thanks for your Video.

The Long Island RR had many FA-1s. They used them for commuter trains.

thanks for a intresting video on alco locos. 👍👍👍🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪

Love ALcO, love this video!

It always comes down to the 244

Thanks for the info. I was a little confused about these Alco locomotives. Thanks for sharing your data and providing a good video to cover your experiences.

I own 12 FA-2 Ho models of Proto 2000 Locomotives.

Around the 5:30 mark you mention the 6 axle diesels were too heavy for the lines they were traveling... yet 20 years prior, heavy Pacifics, Hudsons. and Berk's roamed the same rails without problems or requiring the track to be relayed. Math ain't mathing...

Oh, and I did subscribe. 🚂 🫡

If it is the same as Alco PA-2, then it is not forgotten since it is featured in Railroad Tycoon II!

Brother- I absolutely love your videos. But why do they all sound like your talking while sitting on the pot constipated lol?

I thank you for putting this documentary together. Content is great! But, I would find a professional voice. Don’t use yours.

what is the railroad that has those 2 engines in the last part of the video?

I think that there should be a Policy, a policy that dictates that One or More units of a series of locomotive should always be Preserved. Why? For history sake of course. It’s sad that such models like the Alco DL-109 and others have No Surviving Members, and the only true way you can see them in action is on a Model Layout.

A "passers" locomotive?

The Santa fe went with diesal because water supply out west in the desert. This proved long haul. The big boy is heavy. Head end power done away with steam generator. Head end power used less fuel overall