The Alco Century Series

Alco’s Century series was perhaps a diesel locomotive model developed more from desperation than anything else in an attempt to gain a footing in the locomotive market and better compete with both General Electric and General Motors. The American Locomotive Company (Alco) was a locomotive manufacturer icon for years before it switched from building steamers to diesels. During the steam era Alco built some of the best and well-known locomotives to ever roam the rails, many of which still survive today. These included locomotives such as the 4-6-4 Hudson, 4-8-4 Niagara, 4-6-6-4 Challenger and 4-8-8-4 Big Boy. Even when the diesel locomotive first began to see widespread use in switching service Alco did quite well selling hundreds of S and RS switcher models.

While Alco held second place in the diesel locomotive market for the first twenty years or so from the late 1930s onward, it was essentially no contender to EMD. The company’s outlook would worsen in the 1950s when General Electric not only broke ranks with Alco but also went on to debut their very own line of diesels, its ubiquitous Universal series, which was not only quite popular but also bumped Alco into third place.

To counter GE’s new locomotive model Alco debuted its Century series in the early 1960s. The first in the series was the C420; a powerful, clean design that unfortunately was much more successful with railfans (and still is) than railroads. 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 C420, “C”, of course, stood for Century series, “4” was the axle number (in this case a B-B arrangement), and the last two digits were the horsepower rating.

While the most powerful locomotive series since F-M’s Trainmaster model, the model (especially the C636) could just not compete with EMD and GE. To make matters worse, around the time the Century series C-C models debuted EMD had launched its SD40, and later upgraded SD40-2 series, one of the most successful diesel locomotive designs ever built with several thousand rolling off of the assembly line through the 1980s (most of which are still in regular freight use today).

In all, between the Century series four and six-axle models, only a few hundred were ever built, a mere drop in the bucket to what EMD and GE were cranking out with their similar designs. The C636 would also prove to be Alco’s last entry into its long and storied history book, sadly closing its doors in the fall of 1968, no longer able to compete with GE and EMD. Today, Century series models can still be found roaming the country here and there, especially the four axle units, although most are relegated to museums and tourist lines.

In any event, more information regarding the Century series can be found below. For more information regarding the Century series please click here.

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Alco's Century Series

Also consider Mike Schafer's Vintage Diesel Locomotives which looks at virtually all of the classic builders and models from Alco PAs to early EMD Geeps. If you’re interested in classic Alcos, or diesel locomotives in general, this book gives an excellent general history of both. If you're interested in perhaps purchasing either (or both) of these books please visit the links below which will take you to ordering information through Amazon.com, the trusted online shopping network.

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