In the early 1970's, EMD and GE simply could not meet the power demands of railroads, and as a result, railroads such as the Clinchfield, who ran big trains in mountain territory and required big power, faced power shortages. This increased demand for power led to the lease of 3 Alco C636 from Morrison Knudsen Construction. The Alco units were the first on the railroad since the 50's with big 4-6-6-4 Challenger type locomotives, but they proved to be valuable to the Clinchfield until GE could deliver 7 new U36C's. 616 negative from my collection, photo by Warren Calloway.
An exclamation attributed to TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson, it is this eponymous expression of which certain images convey man and machine versus nature . . .
