The Alco C628

The Alco C628 was the builder's first in its line of six-axle, C-C road switchers. Overall these behemoths were as powerful as they appeared, which is perhaps ironically a significant reason why the American Locomotive Company (Alco) did not sell more of its six-axle Century line. Perhaps most unfortunate was that Alco missed the high horsepower, six-axle market by just a few years as in the early 1970s GM's Electro-Motive Division released its SD40 series which to this day remains one of the most popular locomotive designs ever conceived. In any event, the C628 would prove to be Alco's most successful six-axle Century, selling nearly 200 units. Today, there are three C628's known to exist although none are located within the United States; Delaware & Hudson Railway #610 is located at the Yucatan Railroad Museum in Mexico along with Ferrocaril del Pacifico #606. Additionally, Hammersly Iron #2000 is preserved by the Pilbara Railway Historical Society of Australia.

The Century series also brought out a new numbering system by Alco, replacing the straightforward symbols from before (“RS” for road-switcher, “PA” for passenger and A-unit, etc.) with letters and digits, something roughly similar to Baldwin’s numbering system. With the C628, “C”, of course, stood for Century series, “6” was the axle number, and the last two digits were the horsepower rating. The Alco C628 debuted in late 1963 as a replacement for the builder's RSD-15 line. Using Alco's tried in proven 251C model prime mover the C628 was rated at 2,750-2,800 horsepower and it, along with its successors became legendary for their ability to pull serious tonnage. Unfortunately, as powerful as they were railroads came to dislike them since they caused significant wear to the track structure. This was particularly true for the Monon, which only used their C628s for a few years before selling the units. Ultimately, Alco sold fewer six-axle Centuries than it probably could otherwise have.

Strangely, even after GE entered the locomotive market itself and competed directly against Alco the company continued to purchase internal components from them. Perhaps most ironic was that components like GE's model GT586A4 main generator could be found in both Century and Universal models. In any event, the Alco C628 up to that time offered the most starting (85,750 pounds) and continuous tractive effort (79,500 pounds) of any locomotive in its class, which is a significant reason why some railroads really liked them. This was especially the case with the Chicago & North Western, which purchased the N&W's 30 units in 1973 finding them quite useful employed in heavy ore service along its lines in northern Wisconsin and the UP of Michigan. They last about 14 years on the C&NW before being retired in 1987.

The carbody design of the C628 carried the standard Century look of a long, flush hood and short nose ahead of the cab. The six-axle Centuries were massive locomotives, with the C628 weighing 204 tons and was more than 69-feet in length! For a total production roster of Alco C628s please click here. For technical data on the model please click here. Finally, for more information about the C628 and all Century series designs please refer to the chart below.

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Century Series

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