The Alco S-6 (specification DL 430) 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 ...

of the

switcher A switcher, shunter, yard pilot, switch engine, yard goat, or shifter is a small railroad locomotive used for manoeuvring railroad cars inside a rail yard in a process known as ''switching'' (US) or ''shunting'' (UK). Switchers are not inten ...

type constructed by

ALCO 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 ...

Schenectady, New York Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

; a total of 126 locomotives were built between May 1955 and December 1960. The S-6 was an improved version of the earlier S-5.

Design

Visually indistinguishable from the S-5, the S-6 used an ALCO 251A or 251B prime mover rated at . The locomotive rode on two-axle

AAR AAR or Aar may refer to: Geography * Aar, a river in Switzerland, tributary of the Rhine *Aar (Lahn), a tributary of Lahn river in Germany, descending from the Taunus mountains * Aar (Dill), a tributary of Dill river in Germany, also in the bas ...

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 ...

, giving a B-B wheel arrangement. ALCO produced a

cow-calf In rail transport, a cow-calf (also cow and calf) locomotive is a set of switcher-type diesel locomotives. The set usually is a pair; some 3-unit sets (with two calves, also known as herds) were built, but this was rare. A cow is equipped with a ...

variant for the

Oliver Iron Mining Company The Oliver Iron Mining Company was a mining company operating in Minnesota, United States. It was one of the most prominent companies in the early decades of mining on the Mesabi Range. As a division of U.S. Steel, Oliver dwarfed its competitors ...

designated SB-8/SSB-9, two sets were produced of this version.

Original owners

In popular culture

* In '' Back to the Future Part III'', two double headed S-6 locomotives destroyed the

DeLorean time machine In the ''Back to the Future'' franchise, the DeLorean time machine is a time travel device made by retrofitting a DMC DeLorean vehicle with a flux capacitor. The car requires 1.21 gigawatts ("jigawatts/jigowatts") of power and needs to travel 88 ...

, when it returned to 1985.

References

External links

* Sarberenyi, Robert.
Alco S5, S6, and SSB9 Original Owners
'. B-B locomotives S6 Diesel-electric locomotives of the United States Railway locomotives introduced in 1955 Locomotives with cabless variants Standard gauge locomotives of the United States Standard gauge locomotives of Mexico Diesel-electric locomotives of Mexico {{diesel-loco-stub

Design

Original owners

In popular culture

See also

References

External links