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Reply to "Lionel Alco PA lives up to reputation as "honorary steam engine""

Rich Melvin posted:

The Alco PAs and a lot of other Alcos of that era, were powered by the Alco 244 prime mover, released in 1944. It was used in a lot of Alco diesels and while it was not as good as the EMD design of the era, I think it's a bit of a stretch to call it a "lemon." Thousands of 244's served long and well for many years in Alco products. There are still a handful of them running today. In 1951, Alco came out with their 251 prime mover, which was a MUCH better design than the old 244.

One of the 244's problems, and the problem which caused all the smoke, was "turbo lag." Like most turbos, the Alco turbocharger was driven solely by the exhaust gas stream. When the throttle was notched up quickly, the governor and fuel rack instantly delivered the higher fuel delivery rate called for by the higher throttle position, but the turbo was not spinning fast enough to deliver enough air to properly burn all the fuel. The turbo would "lag" the throttle change by several seconds as it spooled up. It was during this time that the Alco 244 could deliver prodigious amounts of smoke

Yes - and one of the things I prefer about Alco P's and F's vis-a-vis EMD E's and F's (besides the better looks of the Alcos) is the sound. An Alco 4-cycle prime mover has an almost casual, "Relax - I got this" sound about it, as compared to the EMD 2-cycle "all wound up" sound.

Of course, all that I just typed is irrelevant, purely foamer rail fan talk -  but it's fun.

Me - I tend to prefer my locos with 2 or 3 or 4 (or 6!) cylinders and a big horizontal boiler on top, anyway.

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