SSLV Motorcar

SSLV Motorcar was a class of three experimental locomotive designs that were built by the Southern San Luis Valley Railroad (or SSLV).
=Rubber-Tire design=
SSLV Motorcar was an experimental locomotive design that were built by the Southern San Luis Valley Railroad (or SSLV), it was equipped with a rubber tire between the two bogies to specifically increase traction and had a Ford flathead V8 engine that powered the Locomotive.
==Flaws==
The rubber tires constantly kept busting open, they weren't built for the weights or the conditions involved for the rail operation.
==Fate==
The whole vehicle was sidelined as a switcher (which it was able to do) and then it was taken apart.
=Chain-driven version=
In 1953 the railroad was reorganized as the Southern San Luis Valley, with new traffic shipping out chilled lettuce as the main industry served. The old idler flat car was retrieved, and a new locomotive idea was brought to the table. The old rubber traction system was removed, and a chain drive directly to the axles was used (more on this shortly). By 1957 the railroad was reduced to just a few miles in the Blanca area.
== Beginning ==
The new locomotive, dubbed the D-500, was powered by an International Harvester UD-24 diesel engine. Which in turn drove a Cat hydraulic transmission. In turn feeding into a Euclid truck axle, this truck axle was connected to a sprocket turning a double roller chain, which was reduced down to another sprocket, that went down onto one of the trucks. The main drive chain (visible just over the brake lever) drove the wheel, with said wheel also chain driving the wheel on the adjacent truck.
== The SSLV's Fate ==
The Southern San Luis Valley would continue to operate until 1996 when they shut down, and essentially left the equipment abandoned. The "assets" and ROW were purchased by the San Luis and Rio Grande Railway in 2007 simply for car storage, with the two SSLV locomotives left to rust away.
== The Second Version ==
The second SSLV engine on the property, sitting next to the D-500 is former US Army/Utah Power & Light Plymouth ML3 #1. They purchased this in 1977 in non running condition. An engine was found, but the project was never finished, and the engine sits sans hood.
== Today ==
As of today, the pair of SSLV engines sit abandoned in an unknown location.
== Criticisms ==
Bob Griswold called the D-500 the "Slow moving conglomerate of Caterpillar, International Harvester, Euclid and other assorted moving parts and mechanisms" in his book Colorado's Loneliest Railroad – the San Luis Southern.
Category:Motor Rail locomotives
Category:Experimental locomotives