OK, OK, so it’s not the Plymouth of Chrysler fame, but it’s a Plymouth. I just couldn’t resist snapping a few photos from my phone when I saw this awhile back. It was built in 1937 by the Plymouth Locomotive Works in Plymouth, Ohio (where else). It has a Buda or Hercules diesel engine, a torque converter transmission, and chain drive to the wheels.
I wanted to get a picture of it under load but I could not wait that long. But when it does move it makes copious clouds of black smoke and an awful racket!
The operator of this beast said they use it around the yard for shunting. Plymouth Locomotive made little engines like this from 1910 until 1997 and some fifteen hundred or so of them are still in service today.
Love it. That shot of a little engne moving a big gondola says a thousand words.
Nice catch. They have an unrestored 20 tonner at the Illinois Railway museum that’s pretty cool if you can catch them using it. They really do have a sound all their own. It’s like large straight 6 with the exhaust chopped off at the manifold.
Super cool! My other interest is in old trains, so nice to find the double dip today!!!
Iirc the Puget Sound Railroad Museum at Snoqualmie has one similar to that. One of my work colleagues was a member and spent considerable time one year getting it donated to the museum when it was surplused from the shipyard. It was in running condition but the railroad wouldn’t let it move over their tracks to the museum under its own power, so it had to be loaded on a flatcar – or a lowboy truck – it was too long ago for me to remember for sure.
Now THAT’S a Plymouth I can wrap my arms around! Bravo for this and thank you!
There is a scrap yard in Middletown, OH where I used to work that have a couple of mini-switchers they use for moving gondolas full of steel around the yard. One year I stopped and parked the car and walked up to one that happened to be parked outside and snapped a few photos. No builder plates, so I have no idea who built them but were cool, nevertheless.
Oh, man…I’m gonna have to get out the photos of all the Geeps I’ve worked with!
I’ve played a lot with Jeeps…but I’ve been working fifteen years with Geeps.
The Geeps are…like a hybrid without batteries. Got Detroit Diesel engines, and all-wheel drive….great towing capacity…
Neat but what a drag coefficient!
My daughter wanted to know what the engine’s name is as all engines MUST have their name on them, right? 🙂
DAmn you, Thomas the Tank Engine! 🙂
Slant-6?
3-on-the-tree?
Bench seat?
Seeing as the loco is still at work, it’s very likely (new smokepipe) that it has been re-engined. It’d be interesting to know what engine it now uses.
I’d be willing to bet it’s a Caterpillar.
They’re big both on heavy off-road equipment, and, now, railroad locomotives. The’ve purchased Electro-Motive, the pioneering diesel-electric locomotive builder spun off from General Motors.
Besides which, the stack looks JUST LIKE something out of a Cat. Means nothing by itself, but…
Meant to add this….
That’s me with the blue tee-shirt on my head. Hot day and no air conditioning.
According to the book, “Critters, Dinkys & Centercabs” by author Jay Reed, Plymouth was the most successful manufacturer of these industrial locomotives, producing some 7,500 during a production run which spanned nearly a century.