[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] what is the first locomotive model that comes to your mind when someone mentions the old KCs for many it would be something modern like the EMD SD 70 AC or the General Electric Evolution series maybe it's the kcs1 2 and 3 or maybe it's something in the old white ghost paint Scheme maybe it's something in the Battleship Gray maybe it's something as simple as a Jeep I could go on for a while here in today's video I'm willing to bet that several of the locomotives that I'm about to cover are nobody's first thought while the railroad had a majority of common locomotive models on its roster throughout its history there are plenty of unique locomotives that several people would consider odd welcome back to what once was where we dive into various topics of what the railroads of North Louisiana and surrounding areas were like in decades past in today's video we'll be covering what some may consider Oddball locomotive models that served under the KCs flag [Music] we're going to start the video off all the way back when steam was King The Humble KCs that stemmed from Arthur Stillwell's Vision to connect the Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico didn't have as many unique steamed configurations as other roads nonetheless it was still a very interesting roster with massive 2104s 288 O's and several other common wheel types such as pacifics or 10 wheelers there were two locomotives that I consider to be outliers within the KCs steam roster those being number 900 and 901 in 1913 the Llama locomotive Works received an order from the KCs for a pair of three trucked geared Shea locomotives now most people including myself would normally associate the shades as working deep within the North American Forest on logging roads but the KCs would utilize theirs for the industrial districts of Kansas City despite being an urban environment the branch lines that these locomotives served on saw tight curves and tough grades right up a shade locomotives alley the 900 was the bigger of the two Shays and at the time of its construction it was the biggest Shea locomotive built by llama while that title would be taken away years later the 900 was still measured at an impressive 52 ft and 11 in long with 18x 20 in cylinders that contributed to a whopping 74,000 lb of trative effort while sister locomotive 91 was smaller both of these geared locomotives were in charge of local jobs in the warehouse district for 15 years until the eventual scrapping of both of them in 1928 the early era of diesels must have been a very interesting one to cover as the railroads moved away from Steam they would have to test the waters with several different diesel manufacturers and find out which one they preferred the reputations of the EMD or GE locomotives had yet to grow and it wasn't clear if steam manufacturers such as Baldwin or alco could effectively produce Diesel power while the KCs would mostly ride with EMD until the late 1990s they had their fair share of unique locomotives from other manufacturers shortly after the second world war in 1946 a variety of diesel locomotive Builders would be sending their models to the railroad the Baldwin locom Works built many a steam engine for the KCs unfortunately Baldwin was not able to survive with the new era of diesels but they did make an attempt only five locomotives built by Balwin would have a presence on the KCs roster in May of 1946 the KCs bought a single Balwin v660 switcher the switcher only had a horsepower rating of 660 which was significantly lower than emd's NW2 switcher with its 1,000 horsepower a fun fact is that the KCs would purchase the last one ever built and it was numbered 1150 the small switcher model did not have the greatest success story as many roads opted to send them to EMD to rebuild them into s sw900 specifications the KCs superintendent of Machinery stated in the late 1950s that there was no interest in rebuilding the 1150 along with the other four Baldwin locomotives on the roster the 1150 had a unique feature that wasn't seen in most other examples of the model type notice the four exhaust stacks on top most V 660s only had a large single stack just in front of the cab only a handful of the v660 models would survive the Scrapper torch and unfortunately the KCs 1150 would not be one of them while not scrapped by the railroad itself it was sold off to a new owner whose sole intention was to salvage any usable parts and the rest would be discarded the other four Baldwin locomotives that were purchased by KCs were the S12 model s12s were of vast Improvement horsepower wise compared to the V 660 with an output of 12200 horsepower from research that I gathered these s12s seem to primarily handle switching duties in the Kansas City area only ever leaving the KC terminal for maintenance work at the facilities in Pittsburgh Kansas they were numbered 116 60 through 1163 the quart head of s12s received by the KCs were built in 1951 but quickly were seen as unfavorable engines for train Crews early generator and other electrical issues would result in the s12s being banned from any heavyduty jobs where once again emd's NW2 model outshined them with a smaller horsepower output after 17 years of service to the KCs the s12s would be retired in 196 8 and traded to EMD for a partial credit to the upcoming order of the giant SD40 EMD found itself bringing in unreal amounts of Revenue after the end of World War II with war production restrictions lifted just about every railroad was in a rush to replace steam with diesel Motive Power KCs was no different being impressed with their slick e-units and NW2 switchers though when reaching out to EMD for an order there was a backlog upward to 2 years the need for new power was the highest priority aside from the 1937 built jclass Texas types the steam power being utilized ranged anywhere from 2 to 4 decades old despite wanting to stay loyal to EMD the railroad was forced to find a builder who could ensure reasonable delivery time to Aid the power crisis this is where Fairbanks Morris would enter the picture a 4unit set of Eerie builts were purchased in 1946 these included 60a and 60b paired with 61a and 62b each motor had an impressive horsepower rating of 2,000 making National headlines on their inaugural run with a total of 8,000 horsepower leading Freight down the mainline KCs was the first to receive Eerie built specifically designed for Freight duties with other roads utilizing these distinctive motor for passenger service the set of four engines would have the same Tractive effort as a jclass or two of the articulated 2880 gclass which was a total of 240,000 lb they couldn't come sooner because when delivered in December of 46 the Eerie builts went straight to work between Pittsburgh and the queen a coal miner strike led the KCs to skipping the ceremonies planned and also Road testing two more a units were purchased shortly after the initial introduction to the KCs being numbered as 60c and 61c 62a and 62c were another pair of a units purchased to be utilized for the yellena these saw action on freight runs from shreport to New Orleans but also passenger service from sh port to port author despite aiding the power shortage the Eerie builds also had considerable mechanical issues with several major failures recorded in their years of service being linked to the pr Movers as EMD finally fulfilled KCs orders of F3 and F7 locomotives the Eerie builts were pulled from service and sent the EMD to be rebuilt with EMD 576 Prime movers two of the Eerie builts would be scrapped with one still having a pure FM interior and the other being a EMD rebuild the rest of the Eerie builts would meet the same fate as the Baldwin s12s traded to EMD for the upcoming SD40 order the these were not the only Fairbanks Morse built locomotives to be purchased by the KCs in 1949 KCs acquired two H1 15544 Road switchers numbered 40 and number 41 were assigned to passenger service and came equipped with steam generators they were delivered in the vibrant Southern bell paint Scheme and would be the only road switchers to sport it until the SW 1500s received the paint in the late 2000s when the Retro Bell paint scheme was introduced these pair of switchers would work passenger trains between sh port and New Orleans along with the shorter that ran between its names sake City and Hope Arkansas though to No Surprise these switchers weren't exactly the best option for passenger service being quickly reassigned to local Freight jobs in Pittsburgh the 41 would be sent to EMD and would come back as a very oddl looking gp9 as the 40 would remain a pure FM product 40 was scrapped in the mid-60s but the re built 41 lasted until 1971 though it's worth noting that the 41 was renumbered to 45 to avoid conflicting with train numbers at some point in his career only nine Alco diesels would ever wear the KCs lettering four were built new while the remaining five were secondhand the four new engines came in the form of the ALCO rs1 light Road switcher numbered 1110 through 1113 all four engines were built in 1943 during the war time it's believed that these four alos were allocated to the KCs since the road was swamped with military traffic and scrambled to lease secondhand steam engines the RS On's were the first locomotives on the fleet to have multiple unit configurations for larger freight trains and worked between Pittsburgh and Watts Oklahoma and also heavner and dequen like the other oddballs in this video These alos had their fair share of issues these motors could not maintain consistent speeds with the heavier Mainline trains so management reassigned the motors to local work in Texas and yard transfer jobs in treport eventually upon the arrival of more F units the rs1 were sent to Kansas City for switching operations until retirement called in 1954 four secondhand alos in the HH or highhood series found themselves on the KCs for a short period of time KCs simply acquired a single HH 900 and three HH 1000s because they were a very good deal and came in excellent condition from their previous owners the HH 900 was numbered as 1120 while the hh1 thousands were 1121 1122 and 1123 the main distinction between the HH 900 and the hh100 was the 100 horsepower difference all four of the HH series were also included in the 1960s trade to EMD for once again you guessed it the SD40 a single Alco S2 was also purchased secondhand by KCs but I couldn't find much information on its career minus the fact that it served the KC terminal railroad before landing on the KCs it was delivered to the railroad in 1967 and was the only Alco locomotive to wear the white paint scheme for a long portion of its career it remained in storage due to several mechanical issues KCs would return the Alo in 1971 well y'all that's all I got for today's edition of what once was I got to say that these oddballs were one of my favorite things that I've researched so far so I really hope that this video is informative to many of you I'm always open to suggestions on what to cover in this series especially if it relates to the KCs or other roads that were significant to Louisiana so if you got an idea leave it down in the comments below until the next time my friends I'll be seeing you somewhere out there along the rails and as always thanks for watching
