American Locomotive Company - Steam Locomotives

Steam Locomotives

Alco was the second-largest steam locomotive builder in the United States (after Baldwin), producing over 75,000 locomotives. Among these were a large number of well-known locomotives. Railroads that favored Alco products included the Delaware and Hudson Railway, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, the New York Central Railroad, the Union Pacific Railroad and the Southern Pacific. Alco was known for its steam locomotives of which the 4-6-4 Hudson and the 4-8-4 Niagara built for the New York Central and the 4-6-6-4 (Challenger) built for the Union Pacific were fine examples. Alco built many of the biggest locomotives ever constructed, including Union Pacific's Big Boy (4-8-8-4).

Alco also built the first steam locomotive in North America to use roller bearings: Timken 1111, a 4-8-4 commissioned in 1930 by Timken Roller Bearing Company was used for 100,000 miles (160,000 km) on fifteen major United States railroads before it was purchased in 1933 by the Northern Pacific Railway. (The Northern Pacific renumbered the Four Aces to No. 2626 and ran it on the North Coast Limited, as well as its pool trains between Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, and excursions, through 1957.)

During World War II, Alco produced many 2-10-0 Decapods for the USSR. Many of these were undelivered at the end of the war, and ten of these were sold to Finland in 1947. One, Alco builder's No. 75214, is preserved at the Finnish Railway Museum.

Though the dual-service 4-8-4 steam locomotive had shown great promise, 1948 saw the last steam locomotives erected in Schenectady. These were the seven A-2a class 9400-series Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad 2-8-4 "Berkshires." Their tenders, however had to be subcontracted to Lima Locomotive Works, as Alco's tender shop had been closed, and the building converted to diesel locomotive manufacture.

Joseph Burroughs Ennis (1879–1955) was a senior vice president between 1917 and 1947 and was responsible for the design of many of the locomotives manufactured.