Alco PA-1

The **Alco PA-1** is a diesel locomotive in the game Railroad Tycoon II. It becomes available in the year 1946, and is a relatively quick locomotive capable of easily reaching 80mph with most loads. Though it has relatively high running costs (as with most diesels), it has the capability to handle nearly any type of load and turn a profit, as long as high operating efficiency is achieved. This locomotive is likely to be a mainstay on most player's railways throughout the 1950's.

## Strategy

The Alco PA-1 is an obvious replacement for steam locomotives such as the Hudson and Daylight, due to their superior performance while having lower running costs. When it comes out in 1946, the player has a choice of using it versus the F3A+B. Though the PA-1 has a slightly higher top speed than that of the F3A, this is just about cancelled out by the F3A's very high free weight. The Alco PA-1 is also slightly cheaper to build comparatively to the F3A+B. However, the F3A has much better acceleration and reliability, and it is for this reason that F3A is much better on busier railways. The Alco PA-1 better on longer routes or shorter loads, where it's higher speed can be utilized. Still, both locomotives could easily be used in place of each other, with both locomotive's best use being medium distance/value passengers and freight. While the Alco PA-1 isn't bad on grades, the F9 (1949) is a locomotive that is better at grade-handling at speed. The F9 also has a significantly higher top speed, and it should be used for Express Passenger and Faster Freight services instead of the Alco PA-1. The lifetime of the Alco PA-1 probably is until the electric Class E111 comes out in 1974. It is a similarly specified locomotive to the Alco PA-1, and has very low running costs comparetively. If the diesel route is preferred, then Alco PA-1 can continue to be used right up to retirement, and then be replaced by locomotives such as the FP45 or Class E111.

## History

**ALCO PA** refers to a family of A1A-A1A diesel locomotives built to haul passenger trains that were built in Schenectady, New York, in the United States by a partnership of the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) and General Electric (GE) between June, 1946 and December, 1953. They were of a cab unit design, and both cab-equipped lead A unit **PA** and cabless booster B unit **PB** models were built. The PA-1 was a 2,000 horsepower version of this family.

The PAs, as well as their cousins, the ALCO FAs, were born as a result of Alco's development of a new diesel engine design, the Model 244. In early 1944, development started on the new design, and by November 1945, the first engines were beginning to undergo tests. This unusually short testing sequence was brought about by the decision of Alco's senior management that the engine and an associated line of road locomotives had to be introduced no later than the end of 1946. In preparation for this deadline, by January 1946, the first 16-cylinder 244 engines were being tested, and while a strike delayed work on the locomotives, the first two PA units were released for road tests in June 1946, for testing for one month on the Lehigh Valley Railroad. After these first tests were completed, the locomotives returned to the factory for refurbishment and engine replacement. In September 1946, the first production units, an A-B-A set of PA1s in Santa Fe colors, were released from the factory, and sent to New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, which had a private railroad siding, for exhibition before being launched into road service.