The American Locomotive Company offered their S-6 switcher in the mid-1950s to compete with EMD’s SW900. Alco built a total of 126 of these engines, and by far the largest owner of them, with seventy, was the mighty Southern Pacific. By the mid-1970s, however, the SP had begun divesting their roster of these machines, selling 56 of them to locomotive dealers between December 1974 and August 1978. SP 1204 (ex-SP 1037) was sold to dealer Chrome Crankshaft in 1980, which resold the engine to the A.L. Gilbert Company in Keyes, California. (Founded in 1892, the A.L. Gilbert Company manufactures and distributes animal feed.) Curiously, since the Southern Pacific no longer owned this locomotive, the new owner numbered this engine “S.P. No. 1204” on the hood, and left the numberboards blank. Following a mishap, the engine was scrapped in 2002. And the signs under the cab and on the ends? They read, "This equipment is remote controlled and may start at any time."
Not
just heritage schemes, not just commemorative schemes - this album is devoted to some of the world's most interesting paint schemes, past or present.
