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who ran them as well as company officials. They
were numbered 7600-29. Still feeling the power pinch, ten used Mallets were purchased from the Seaboard Air Line. Having a 2-6-6-4 wheel arrangement, they were given B&O Class "KB" and numbered in the 7700' s. As the reporting marks of the original owner, Seaboard Air Line, were SAL, these Mallets were quickly called "Sally Malleys." With their 69-inch drivers, they were good running engines, well received among the crews. Aside from their operational assets, one of their most outstanding features was a deep melodious steamboat whistle which filled the Potomac River valley with a glorious sound unlike anything heard on the B&O around here - before or since. The change from steam to diesel was delayed about ten years by World War II. During the 1950's steam engines gradually disappeared on the B&O and most American railroads, supplanted by the diesel which had proven itself economically with its ability to make longer runs without the frequent stops for water and coal required by steam engines.Pete Harper has a copy of the B&O's SummaryofEquipmentNo. 33,datedJanuary 1, 1934. A page from that Summary indicates the Class, Type, Symbol, Wheel Arrangement, Series, and Total Locos for Locomotive Equipment then rostered. It is included in this book.
Diesels began appearing on the Capitol Limited and then on other passenger trains. The "E"-series units had a slanted front end, sometimes referred to as a "shovel nose," which was straightened up in later editons. Wearing the traditional B&O blue and gray paint scheme that would become standard, they were generally operated in "A-B" pairs on passenger trains, consisting of one "A" unit (with cab), and one cabless "B" unit. Almost all B&O passenger diesels were EMC-EMO-GM products. In 1989 GM celebrated the 50th anniversary of their "FT" line of road freight diesels, dispelling doubts of early skeptics that they would last when first introduced in 1939. B&O made wide use of the Ff and its succeeding generations, usually in 4-unit A-B-B-A sets. The F units were generally called "Covered Wagons." American Locomotive Company (ALCO) and Baldwin Locomotive works (later, Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton Corporation) also produced road freight diesels for B&O. Both were good looking units, but the Bald wins, called "Sharks" due to their angular nose, were particularly attractive in their B&O livery. Although Baldwin, ALCo, and Fairbanks-Morse, along with GM, furnished d iesel switchers to B&O, the first three eventually passed from the scene, leaving General Motors the survivor. Just like the steam engine before it, the diesel has undergone constant change and improvement throughout its relatively short lifetime, and again the impetus is for faster, larger, and more powerful locomotives. General Motors also developed a new series of units for all-around service beginning with the GP7. The "GP" indicated "General Purpose" and the units were quickly called "Geeps." The latest in that line is the GP-60 with several dozen intervening models and variations. At the same time, GM also brought along another line of larger units designated "SD" for "Special Duty." They feature six axles versus four axles on the GPs. The other major American diesel locomotive manufacturer today is General Electric. Although not in the business as long as General Motors, they have developed a full line of power units and now run in a virtual tie with GM in supplying the national market. GM and GE units in the great variety of their many models operate in good numbers throughout this terminal every day. The B&O blue and gray locomotive paint scheme gave way to solid blue, then to Chessie yellow and blue, and now to CSX gray,blue and yellow. It is common to see units from any one of the various roads that later became CSX still in the paint schemes of its predecessor roads.
S - The Locomotives That Baldwin Built, by Fred Westing. - The American Steam Locomotive, Vol. 1, by Frank M. Swengel. - Pete Harper W-BRH
B&O MOTIVE POWER Part 2 - Diesel The diesel engine was invented by Rudolph Diesel, a German engineer with the first model built and patented in 1892. In a diesel engine, air is compressed to a temperature high enough to ignite fuel that is injected directly into the cylinder, whereas in a gasoline engine, fuel is mixed with air and then ignited by a spark. An immediate advantage of the diesel is that it bums cheaper fuel, a blend that is slightly heavier than kerosene. America's first diesel locomotive was a 300-hp switcher placed in service by the Central Railroad of New Jersey in 1925, about twelve years before B&O got its first streamlined passenger diesels from ElectroMotive Corporation, later Electro-Motive Division of General Motors Corporation.
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