MTH 80-20870 Alco PA A Unit Std Erie

MTH 80-20870 Alco PA A Unit Std Erie

MTH 80-20870 Alco PA A Unit Std Erie

This is MTH 80-2087-0 Alco PA A Unit Std Erie. Alco PA A unit (DCC ready) , Erie. Cab number: 856. The PA was Alco's glamour girl. While Electro-Motive's E-units easily outsold Alco's passenger engine, the PA is widely regarded as the most beautiful first-generation diesel - period. Perhaps no other locomotive looked so right at the head of the streamlined trains of the late forties and fifties that were the last hurrah of American long-distance passenger service. The 294 PA's and cabless PB's built between 1946 and 1953 powered some of America's most famous name trains, from the Southern Pacific's Daylight to the Pennsylvania's Broadway Limited. In recognition of its beauty, some fans refer to the PA as an honorary steam locomotive.The muscular PA profile and its elegant nose, with the characteristic grille around the headlight, were designed by Ray Patten, General Electric's head of industrial design. At the time, GE and Alco were partners in the locomotive business, with GE making the electrical equipment for all Alco diesels. Patten's design was described as a locomotive so distinctive and so powerful looking that it actually helps railroads sell their services to passengers and shippers. While Alco would later fall by the wayside, GE went on to become America's largest locomotive builder by the early 1990's.Under the hood of the PA beat a 16-cylinder model 244 prime mover that developed 2000 hp. Depending on their gearing, PA's could hustle a passenger consist along at up to 100 mph.Long after all other PA's had gone to scrap, four restored ex-Santa Fe units remained in service on the Delaware & Hudson into the late 1970's. Sold to the Ferrocarriles Nacionales de Mexico (FNM) in 1978, most of the units eventually deteriorated to junk status, although one remained operational. But in April of 2000, Doyle McCormack - who also happens to be the engineer of No. 4449, the restored Southern Pacific Daylig

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