Peoria & Pekin Union RR Alco Builders Photo
VERY RARE! 1930s Diesel Locomotive #100
Up for auction is a very rare, perfect condition original Alco American Locomotive Company (ALCO) Builders photograph. The HH600 model was produced between 1932 and 1939, in that 7 year period ALCO made only 78 total of these diesel locomotives. The P&PU purchased only ONE of these engines, the #100 was built in 1936 but more importantly it is the vanguard for a successful generation of ALCO diesel switchers. The detail and clarity in this 90 year old photograph is sharp and may well have been a "contact print" of the negative, without any fading and is amazing! I cannot say for sure if there are more than one of these builder photographs produced but this must have been in storage out of sun light. As a comparison I have included recent auction sales ( hammer price without 25% buyers fee ) to show authenticity that it is in an ALCO frame and style. Between 1925 and 1930 my Loco Cyclopedia shows only 44 total "oil-electric" locomotives.
Please
feel free to contact me with any questions. I will pack well protected and ship FedEx Ground in lower 48 USA for flat
$49.00 Contact me for other shipping
options. Thank you for looking !
ADDITIONAL INFO FROM INTERNET REGARDING THE ABOVE
The Peoria and Pekin Union Railway (reporting mark PPU) is
a switching and terminal railroad in Illinois that began
operating in 1881 and was leased to the Tazewell
and Peoria Railroad in
2004. Its main yard and roundhouse are in East Peoria,
Illinois,
and it owns track on both sides of the Illinois River. The company also
owns a rail bridge over the river.
Most railways are regional and do not own
track all the way across the nation, so their lines end at some point. Since
the late 19th century, many railways have chosen to end their lines near Peoria, Illinois. When a train car
reaches the end of one rail line, it must be switched to a different line in
order to continue on to its destination. P&PU engines are responsible for
picking up the cars at the end of other railways' lines and bringing them back
to the main yard in East Peoria. Employees then sort the cars based on which
railway will take them to their next stop. After these new trains have been
formed, P&PU engines take the cars to the beginning of that rail line where
they will continue their journey. That company's engines then pick up the cars
and take them to their destination.
By 1944, the P&PU was switching 14 major
railways that ran into Peoria, an unusually high number of railways for a city
the size of Peoria. The P&PU
currently switches trains for 8 other railways, handles over 170,000 cars per
year, and is owned jointly by the Canadian
National Railway, Norfolk
Southern Railway,
and Union Pacific
Railroad.
The HH600's were powered by 6-cylinder McIntosh & Seymour 531 engines of 600 hp (450 kW). They were
built from July 1932 through May 1939; in all, 78 HH600s were constructed. The
first-built units had sharp-edged front hood corners, but in 1934 ALCO
employed industrial designer Otto
Kuhler to clean up the appearance; he
curved the corners and recessed the headlight, and all subsequent HH series
units were of this style until another restyling in 1938 where the nose was
further rounded. Late versions of this locomotive used the 6-cylinder 538
engine.