One Response to VO1000m 210

  1. Mark Davidson says:
    February 19, 2025 at 1:23 AM

    Location is Kansas City, Missouri.

    The locomotive is on the shop track at the north end of the diesel shop at 19th Street Yard in the West Bottoms industrial district. The next track over is the sand delivery track. In this view just above the locomotive’s walkway is the covered dump pit with horizontal auger, the elevator leg and the attached sand storage bin or tank.

    From the sand storage bin sand is pneumatically blown to the overhead sand tower storage tank. From there gravity flows the sand down to the individual sand delivery hoses to fill locomotive sand bins. Once on the locomotive the engineer can apply sand to railheads near the wheels to help improve traction.

    Spotted on the sand track adjacent to the locomotive are two Howe truss boxcars with new steel sides and renumbered into the SLSF 32,000 series. Further back on service track 1, standing on its nose is a person filling the front sand box of the General Motors (GM) Electro-Motive Division (EMD) SD45 locomotive SLSF 944. Coupled to the rear is an unidentified number General Electric (GE) U25B.

    In the distance in the upper left is the old American Royal Complex dating from 1926. The American Royal, founded in 1899, is an agricultural and educational organization that sponsors a rodeo, livestock and horse shows and a barbeque competition during the fall. It is also the original home of the Future Farmers of America (FFA) Organization which was founded in 1928 during the Royal in Kansas City.

    In this view the Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) VO1000 has been repowered or modified (m) by General Motors (GM) Electro-Motive Division (EMD). The conversions were performed on nine of the locomotives. In 1957 SLSF 205, 210 and 215 were modified by replacing the former BLW De La Verne 8-cylinder VO8-NA engine and cooling system. In the process EMD installed their 12-cylinder 567-C engine and cooling system.

    These units were followed in 1959 by VO1000 SLSF 200-204 and 206. The modifications of these 6 units included the installation of multiple unit (MU) controls. This added flexibility so that they could work together in pairs or more to handle additional cars with a single crew. All of the repowered units required the replacement of the front car body with wider and taller EMD SW1200 hoods.

    Ultimately, the repowering modifications of additional BLW and American Locomotive Company (Alco) locomotives the modifications did not significantly extend the useful life of the converted locomotives. As a result, work to modify additional locomotives was determined to be uneconomical. Instead, the railroad focused its attention on maintaining the existing fleet to high unit availability performance standards, coupled with planned retirement of older units and acquisition of new generally more powerful locomotives.

    The photographer was standing on the embankment of the Kansas City Terminal (KCT) Railway’s High Line route. This line is on an earth fill below the bluff that forms the west boundary of downtown Kansas City. Bottom land stretches to the west to the Kansas River. Other businesses in the West Bottoms were the Kansas City Stockyards, packing houses, various manufacturing operations, commercial and railroad warehouses.

    View looking southwest.

    Hope this helps.

    Thanks!

    Mark

Leave a Reply