The Plymouth CR-8 was a class of 4-axle B'B' centre cab locomotive, built by

Plymouth Locomotive Works Plymouth Locomotive Works was a US builder of small railroad locomotives. All Plymouth locomotives were built in a plant in Plymouth, Ohio until 1997 when the company was purchased by Ohio Locomotive Crane and production moved to Bucyrus, Ohio ...

, USA Several locomotives of type CR-8 have been used in the USA on industrial sites. Ten units (CR-8b) were briefly operated in Thailand in the mid-1960s. During the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

the units were operated by the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

in South Vietnam, and after the end of the war became the property of the Vietnam Railways as class D10H. A second class of Chinese-built locomotives of type DFH21 have operated as the type ''D10H'' on the railways of Vietnam from around 1980 onwards.

History and design

The general design of a CR-8 locomotive was available in weights from with installed power ranging from , using twin engines with hydraulic transmission via a cardan shaft final drive, in gauges from to . The locomotives used in Vietnam were built by the

, USA in the 1960s using two General Motors 12V71 two stroke V12 engines. They were in gauge. The locomotives were originally thought to have been operated on the Royal State Railways of Siam (RSR) as numbers 2001-2010 beginning in 1963 or 1964. The locomotives were transferred to

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...

in the late 1960s during the period of US involvement in the Vietnam war, and operated as numbers 1988 to 1997 by the

. After the end of the

Vietnam war The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

in 1975 the class were renumbered as D10H numbers 31 to 40 by the Vietnam Railways. Several similar units were operated in the USA by industrial operators, as well as

MBTA The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network i ...

and BART. A higher weight class, the CR-8XT, was operated by companies including

Bethlehem Steel The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For most of the 20th century, it was one of the world's largest steel producing and shipbuilding companies. At the height of its succ ...

and the Jones and Laughlin Steel Company.

Notes

References

{{Locomotives of Vietnam Diesel-hydraulic locomotives Military equipment of the Vietnam War Diesel locomotives of Vietnam Metre gauge diesel locomotives 5 ft 6 in gauge locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1963