page_title: Baldwin RP-210
section_title: Operational
hierarchical_section_title: Baldwin RP-210 / Operational
caption_attribution_description: English: New York Central Railroad's "Xplorer" in June 1956
context_page_description: The RP-210 was a streamlined 1,000 hp locomotive built in 1956 by Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton, specifically to operate with the experimental, all-aluminum Train-X, produced by Pullman Car Company. The model represented Baldwin's attempted entry into the lightweight passenger locomotive market, but only three of the low-slung diesel-hydraulic units were produced. The first was built for the New York Central Railroad to power their Xplorer train between Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati, and a pair was purchased by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad to double-end their Dan'l Webster, running between New York City and Boston.
  The New Haven's RP-210s, with their three independent power systems, were among the most complex railroad locomotives in America. They featured a German high-speed diesel prime mover with a hydraulic transmission, an auxiliary-diesel and generator for on-train power, and two externally energized electric traction motors. The unique RP-210 was the last locomotive design to bear the Baldwin name. Along with the lightweight trains it powered, the RP-210 was unsuccessful in achieving stated goals and its service life was short.
context_section_description: The Dan'l Webster was delivered to the New Haven in early October 1956 and began test runs on its Shoreline Route between Boston and New York.  The last 12.8 miles of the westbound trip sees trains passing through the third-rail electrified Harlem Division of the New York Central. The final 3 miles of this route is through the railroad's Park Avenue tunnel into Grand Central Terminal. Here the RP-210 locomotive was required to shut down its diesel engine and utilize electric traction motors.
  To meet the need for dual-powered operation, the New Haven's Bronx-based Van Nest electrical shops initially fitted the Baldwin units with one third-rail contact-shoe per side, bolted to a reinforced journal box bracket on the lead axle of the locomotive's rear truck. This placement was necessitated by the unusually wide gap between the axles on the locomotive's front truck in the diesel-hydraulic design. However, experience had shown that a locomotive required two power collection shoes per side, as widely spaced as possible.  This allowed for one of them to fail, and also limited the possibility that (if the train was suddenly forced to stop) the locomotive's contact-shoe might be short of the next section of energized 3rd-rail. Given the reduced power of the RP-210's small traction motors (300-hp), having only the front or rear locomotive unit of the Dan'l Webster positioned to draw 3rd-rail power would have made it difficult to accelerate the train (approximately 390 tons with passengers) from a standing stop. It might have been necessary to start the RP-210 diesel engine to move it to the next section of available trackside power.  That would have violated a New York City ordinance requiring exhaust-free motive power in the terminal and tunnels.
  So the Van Nest engineers and mechanics scrambled to design a full-length support bracket for the RP-210's lead truck, and attached a rather unconventional contact-shoe assembly to it. The work was completed just prior to the pre-inaugural press run of the train, scheduled for January 7, 1956, with regular service to commence the following day.  The electrical shop supervisors advised against putting the new 3rd-rail shoes into service without proper testing but were overruled by a superior.
  On January 7, the Dan'l Webster left Boston with New Haven president, George Alpert, and about 225 newsmen, promoters, politicians, and railroad managers aboard for the press-run.  Things went well enough until the train merged from New Haven's track #1 to New York Central's track #2, opposite JO tower at Woodlawn Junction in the North Bronx.  There a contact-shoe on the aft RP-210 unit misaligned with the underside of the 3rd-rail, as it passed through the switch-point.  The damaged contact scraped along the energized rail, creating a ground arc of electricity which set the locomotive's truck ablaze and began to melt away the aluminum side-skirting above it.
  The train made an emergency stop on the southbound express track at Woodlawn (Metro-North station).  New York Police and Fire Department units were called to the scene and mainline service was disrupted for two hours.  Minus the rear RP-210 locomotive and the last coach (which could not be detached, due to fire damage), the rest of the Dan'l Webster eventually proceeded on to Grand Central in New York City. While being towed back to Van Nest shops by a switcher engine, the lightweight coach attached to the damaged locomotive derailed near Pelham Station in Westchester, resulting in an additional four-hour delay for evening commuters. On January 21, Time Magazine crowned the public relations fiasco with a national news story titled, "The Devil & Dan'l Webster".
  The lightweight train's inaugural service run was postponed until March 25, and the RP-210 units underwent further modifications to their 3rd-rail power contacts.  A larger and more traditional mechanism, which the New Haven had regularly fastened to the journal boxes of their electric locomotives, was modified to fit the front and rear trucks.  Winter testing saw some complications due to
caption: New York Central Railroad's "Xplorer" in June 1956
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