The first is not always the best: The GE u25b

Note: as it's been pointed out, The ALCO RS-1 was produced just before Word War 2 not World War 1. Sorry my mistake.

YouTube video credits:

Inside New York Central U25B #2500 @ Lakeshore Railway Museum ConwayRails

Desert Rumble - SP U25B #3100 at Orange Empire Railway Museum
railguy365

Southern Pacific 3100 U25BE at OERM
John's Junction Railroad Videos (jreichel1)

Picture licenses:
CC BY-SA

[alcobufff]

Note on the alco RS-1, it was made just before WW II, my mistake.

[rayinpau.s.a.]

Nice Video !, Great shots .
I have always admired GE's U-BOAT Engines for many reasons.
The Pittsburgh & Lake Erie ran quite a few of the U25B's .

[gordonvincent]

I ran many U series GE engines. That 16 notch throttle was something else. It had 8 regular notches, then 8 half notches. At night time you didn't know which notch you were in unless you turned on the cab light. The half notches worked only with GE engines, it had no effect on EMD, ALCo engines. That controller is their KC109. You would use that handle on the left to go from power to dynamic braking, then use the throttle to regulate your braking.

[AmbianEagleheart]

GE built two engines types to try and gain entry to the Australian market.

1 was a narrow-guage engine with a Cooper Bessemer power plant.

The other, was a standard gauge loco patterned after the Black Maria (DL-202) and powered by a Alco 244.

In a weird twist of fate the Alco 244 became associated with GE, leading to the 251 Alco having a much fairer straight-up 'fight' vs EMD 567's.

Alco ended up with VERY loyal customers in Aus, finally succumbing to the EMD645E.

GE didn't get major orders until the Dash-9 era. Only in the last 15 years did they become the leaders.

Thanks for a great video about the grand-daddy of the same FDL equipped C44aci's that I see everyday Down Under.

[bryanhFBH]

At 2:17 the B reactor at Hanford can be seen. These locomotives were an important part of the Manhattan project. In the building right behind 3731 is the uranium reactor which produced the Plutonium for the first atomic weapons.

[poowg]

Back in the '70s I lived along the Milwaukee Road in Wauwatosa and all the dead engines and empty cars on the division were hauled back into town on Friday afternoon. The most common engines that boke down were the SD45s, F45s and U Boats. Couldn't really tell what did in the GEs but a lot of the 20 cylinder EMDs had hood damage from grenaded engines.

[poundbassman]

Great video sir, . You forgot to mention the 44. and 45 ton switchers. I love the side rods

[fernandomarques]

GE had pretty good deals when the old federal railroad of my country needed newer locos to drag iron ore from the central plateau through the steep ramps down to the coast in 1974 they went and got 170 GE U23C diesels with 150 of them being built in country (the other 20, part of the 2nd order, were built in the US and assembled here). GE also rebuild many of the wrecked locos at fairly low prices many of the wrecked U23Cs were brought to dash-7 standard like the U23CAs and C30-7MPs. Even though the had already gone with EMD previously with 45 units of SD18M in 1961, another 45 units of SD38M and 4 units of SD40M in 1967, they would only consider EMD again in 1979 with the 36 SD40-2s built by MACOSA in Spain.
And thats not even going into the U20C, maybe the most produced metric gauge locomotive we have.

[Rebel]

Correction, the RS1 came along before WWII, not WWI as stated in the video @ 2:12.

[greenstrat]

EMD's hubris proved to be its undoing. Yes; they messed up with the 50-Series, but GE's customer service/support was better even if its product wasn't at parity with its competitor.

[arthurerdman]

The U25B was a good engine. They could pull like hell.

[robertlucido]

The U25B is one of my favorite diesel locomotives, in fact, I sent Sam's Trains some N scale models and the engine I sent him was an Atlas N scale U25B

[bradleyjanes]

Southern pacific had u 25s. Railfans liked there clean simple lines great vid👍

[douglasengle]

I'd never understood the GE U25. I have a better appreciation for it after this video, but I'll never forget watching them in the early 1980s along with other GE U locomotives with their hood doors open likely shutdown with EMDs down on their knees pulling coal trains through the WV New River Gorge with the GE units offline right when they were needed the most. I was going to electrical engineering school at West Virginia Tech in Montgomery WV. John Carrier a civil engineering student and I would go rail fanning on the weekends.

Those GE Universal locomotives never acted like a locomotive from a manufacture that seem to know anything about locomotives. They sounded like they didn't want to keep running. Their reputation is they rode horribly and fought for traction with gobs of wheel slip. Their reputation in mountain service is they couldn't take it and would overheat shutting down on long grades. I didn't know GE U-boats were pushing twenty years old at the time.  

The EMDs greatly GP40-2 purred strongly in the 1980s at fuel throttle with their traction motors glowing red pulling 10, 000 ton coal cargos under the New River Gorge bridge in the dark, typically with the GE U locomotives offline by that time having their hood doors open. From that experience I couldn't imagine a use for the GE U locatives because they were greatly offline when they were needed the most. They were disliked by crews for their poor track manners slipping easily and riding badly. Even if the GE U-boats had more horsepower then an EMD it couldn't be used with the poor traction the locomotive had and then they'd quickly shutdown from full throttle or near full throttle use. My conclusion was in flat areas they might be able to get a freight train up to speed in ten or so minutes allowing them to run at partial throttle and not over heat; otherwise, on long grades they were just extra weight.

The CSX grade through the WV New River Gorge was about 0.6% and went for many miles. That is a number I got from a publication some time ago. It seemed like it most be steeper than that when watching the coal trains struggle up the grade.

[calrob]

Good video. Couple of oh ohs though. 1:07 The government rationed, not rationalized. 2:15 The RS1 was not produced after WW1.

[Peter-mtlg]

So in 70 years (1950 to 2020) have they perfected the engine's? I worry about wheel bearings more. 👍

[whiteknightcat]

[Alco] "The company had introduced a model called the RS-1 before World War I ..."
No. Try World War II. The RS-1 was first developed in 1941.

[JamesTyreeII]

I personally think that customers appreciate good customer service that treats them as valuable. Trying to squeeze every penny out of customers can work, but it’s not gonna lead to good feelings and that’s really important and lacking nowadays in companies which has become very greedy.

[squeaksvids]

The locomotive at 6:15 is an EMD machine for IE the Republic of Ireland’s railway.

[johncox]

GE took over the Cooper Bessemer plant at Grove City, Pa and used it for engine assembly