The ALCO RSD-1 was a

diesel-electric locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover (locomotive), prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conv ...

built by the

American Locomotive Company The American Locomotive Company (often shortened to ALCO, ALCo or Alco) was an American manufacturer of locomotives, diesel generators, steel, and tanks that operated from 1901 to 1969. The company was formed by the merger of seven smaller locomo ...

(ALCO). This model was a

road switcher A road switcher is a type of railroad locomotive designed to both haul railcars in mainline service and shunt them in railroad yards. Both type and term are North American in origin, although similar types have been used elsewhere. A road s ...

type rated at and rode on three-axle

trucks A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...

, having a C-C wheel arrangement. It was often used in much the same manner as its four-axle counterpart, the

ALCO RS-1 The ALCO RS-1 was a 4-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by Alco-GE between 1941 and 1953 and the American Locomotive Company from 1953 to 1960. ALCO subsidiary Montreal Locomotive Works built an additional three RS-1s in 1954. This model has ...

, though the six-motor design allowed better tractive effort at lower speeds, as well as a lower weight-per-axle. It was developed to meet the need to supply the Soviet Union over the

Trans-Iranian Railway The Trans-Iranian Railway ( fa, راه‌آهن سراسری ایران) was a major railway building project started in Pahlavi Iran in 1927 and completed in 1938, under the direction of the then-Iranian monarch Reza Shah. It was entirely built ...

starting in mid 1943. On the other hand, due to the traction generator and appurtenant control apparatus being sized for four axles and yet having two additional powered axles, it had poorer performance at higher speeds.Rakov (1995), p. 371-374.

Variations

There were three different specifications issued that covered the RSD-1 model; E1645 and E1646 were for wartime production for the US Army, while E1647 was a post-war order for the Mexican National Railways (

Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México (better known as N de M and especially in its final years as FNM) was Mexico's state owned railroad company from 1938 to 1998, and prior to 1938 (dating from the regime of Porfirio Díaz), a major railroad con ...

Soviet Union

Alco locos

Seventy of the RSD-1s were shipped overseas to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

in early 1945 during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, as part of the

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

war effort. They were classed there as the Soviet Railways Д^A20 (D^A20) class, also known just as Д^А after 1947 (D for Diesel, A for Alco and 20 for axle load in tons). They were used in ordinary line service rather than shunting, especially in southern parts of the Soviet Union (

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...

), where water for steam locomotives was scarce. These locomotives were also used on the Trans-Iranian Railway. The Soviets subsequently kept many of the RSD-1s after the war, adopting the design to form the basis of their own line of diesel locomotives TE1, TEM1 and

TEM2 TEM2 (russian: link=no, ТЭМ2) is a Soviet diesel-electric shunting locomotive. The locomotive was used throughout the Soviet Union and was exported to Poland and Cuba. History The locomotive can be seen as a descendant of the DA units importe ...

. Two RSD-1s were sunk en route to the Soviet Union when the ship they were on was torpedoed by a German

U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...

(Д^A20-41 and Д^A20-50) and 68 were received. They entered service from March 1945, and some were still in service in the 1980s. The D^A20-27 hauled

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

's train to

Potsdam Conference The Potsdam Conference (german: Potsdamer Konferenz) was held at Potsdam in the Soviet occupation zone from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to allow the three leading Allies to plan the postwar peace, while avoiding the mistakes of the Paris Pe ...

, and its positive evaluation was among reasons to copy the design (the Soviet Union built only 51 diesel locomotives before the war, so it had not enough experience with designing).

Soviet locos

The Soviet-built TE1 (ТЭ1), initially designed TE1-20, was a

reverse engineered Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompli ...

copy of the Alco product, adapted to metric system and Soviet norms.Rakov (1995), p. 375-377. They were almost identical, but locomotives after #TE1-20-122 had 1050 mm (41.34 inch), instead of 40 inch wheels (1016 mm). The designation meant T - ''teplovoz'' (diesel engine), E - electric transmission, model 1, 20 ton axle load. A production lasted from 1947 until 1950 and 300 were made (including 2 of TE5 class). The

TE2 The TE2 (; ) is a class of Soviet Union, Soviet diesel-electric locomotives built by Malyshev Factory in Kharkiv, Ukraine, from 1948 to 1955. It is nominally a two-unit version of class ALCO RSD-1, TE1 but is very different in appearance. While th ...

(ТЭ2) utilized engine and electric components of TE1, but was as a twin-unit version, with a wagon-type body and utilized two-axle bogies.Rakov (1995), p. 379-380. The

TE5 The TE5 (Cyrillic script: ТЭ5) is a Soviet experimental diesel-electric locomotive. In 1948 the Malyshev Factory in Kharkiv (Soviet Ukraine) released two (unconfirmed reports say five) of these locomotives, which were developed from the TE1 (Т ...

(ТЭ5) was a cold climate version of the TE1. The cab was extended for most of the locomotive to provide covered access to the engine and a boiler was added to keep the cab warm when the engine was not running. Only two (or five) TE5 were built, within TE1 series.

US Army

The first 13 RS-1s were requisitioned by the US Army, returned to ALCO and rebuilt to RSD-1s #8000-8012 for use on the Trans Iranian Railroad. This effort was to supply the Soviet Union. See the RS-1 article for the identity of the first 13 RSD-1s.

Original owners

Specification E1645

Specification E1646

Specification E1647

File:RSD-1 final voyage.jpg, RSD-1 being delivered to the US Army Transportation Museum at Fort Eustis, seen in 2011

References

External links

ALCo World: The Russian RSD-1 Copies
Another RSD-1 roster with build dates http://www.thedieselshop.us/Alco_RSD1.HTML {{Rolling stock of Russia C-C locomotives RSD-1 United States Army locomotives Diesel-electric locomotives of the United States Railway locomotives introduced in 1942 Standard gauge locomotives of the United States 5 ft gauge locomotives Standard gauge locomotives of Mexico Diesel-electric locomotives of the Soviet Union Diesel-electric locomotives of Mexico