GE boxcab

The GE boxcabs were diesel-electric switcher locomotives. General Electric built the chassis and running gear, generator, motors and controls, and Ingersoll Rand provided the diesel engine. The principle of operation was the same as modern locomotives, the diesel engine driving a main generator of 600 volts DC with four traction motors, one per axle.

Two models were the 60-Ton with a six-cylinder four-stroke in-line engine of 300 hp and the 100-Ton with two of the same engines. Thirteen units were produced between 1928 and 1930.

These locomotives were originally produced by a consortium of ALCO, GE and Ingersoll Rand, ALCO dropped out of the arrangement in 1928, after acquiring their own diesel engine manufacturer in McIntosh & Seymour and went on to start its own line of diesel switchers.

The only surviving example of these boxcabs, Foley Bros. #110-1, a 100-ton dual-engined locomotive, could be found at the Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola, CA. In December 2011, the Foley Brothers #110-1 twin engine 600 hp GE-IR boxcab was moved to the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento CA. In addition, an ALCO/GE/Ingersoll-Rand Boxcab that was once the Union Carbide #11 is undergoing restoration at the Northern Alabama Railroad Museum in Huntsville, AL.

These boxcabs were often termed "oil-electrics" to avoid the use of the German name "Diesel", unpopular after World War I.

See also

• ALCO boxcab, the immediate predecessor of these locomotives.

External links

• ALCo-GE-IR Boxcabs Page
• John F Campbells ALCo-GE-IR Boxcabs Page
• Northern Alabama Railroad Museum Projects Page