page_title: ALCO FA
section_title: Service history
hierarchical_section_title: ALCO FA / Service history
caption_attribution_description: English: The train had 5 parlor cars. A Roger Puta Photograph
context_page_description: The ALCO FA was a family of B-B diesel locomotives designed to haul freight trains. The locomotives were built by a partnership of ALCO and General Electric in Schenectady, New York, between January 1946 and May 1959. Designed by General Electric's Ray Patten, they were of a cab unit design; both cab-equipped lead FA and cabless booster FB models were built. A dual passenger-freight version, the FPA/FPB, was also offered. It was equipped with a steam generator for heating passenger cars.
  ALCO's designation of F marks these locomotives as being geared primarily for freight use, whereas the P designation of the PA sets indicates that they were geared for higher speeds and passenger use. However, beyond this their design was largely similar - aside from the PA/PB's both being larger A1A-A1A types with an even more striking nose - and many railroads used FA and PA locomotives for both freight and passenger service.
  Several examples of FAs and FBs have been preserved. While most are now in the care of railroad museums, a few remain in operational status on such lines as the Grand Canyon Railway and the Napa Valley Wine Train.
context_section_description: Three different models were offered. The FA-1/FB-1, which featured a 1,500 horsepower (1,100 kW) rating, was built from January 1946 to October 1950, with a 1,600 hp (1,200 kW) version produced between March and August 1950 (many early models were subsequently upgraded to 1,600 hp). The 1,600 hp (1,200 kW) FA-2/FB-2 (along with the FPA-2/FPB-2 variants) was built between October 1950 and June 1956. Finally, the 1,800 hp (1,300 kW) FPA-4/FPB-4, powered by the 251 V-12 engine, was built between October 1958 and May 1959 by ALCO's Canadian subsidiary, Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW).
  The FAs, as well as their cousins, the ALCO PAs, 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 four locomotives with the 244 engines had been built. Two FA-1s and an FB-1 were painted in ALCO Demonstrator colors and were released for road tests for a month and a half on the Delaware and Hudson Railway.
  A strike at ALCO delayed production beyond the first four units and the three demonstrator units began working on the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad in mid February 1946. The demonstrators were returned to Schenectady when the remainder of the order began delivery in May 1946.
  The GM&O order was completed in April 1947 for a total of 80 units.  Before the end of this production run, ALCO upgraded the generators and traction motors in the locomotives, with the first of these models entering service in February 1947 for the New York Central.
  In 1950, the Montreal Locomotive Works, an affiliate of ALCO, began production of FAs as well.  In the Fall of 1950, an upgraded model, the FA-2, was launched.  This model featured an uprated Model 244 engine, with an output of 1600 horsepower. Additionally, the carbody was lengthened, making possible the addition of a steam generator in the A unit to allow for use in passenger service.  Models equipped as such were designated the FPA-2/FPB-2.
  The first FA-2s were delivered in October 1950 to the Baltimore and Ohio and the Erie.  By this time, however, the cab unit had fallen out of favor due to the greater versatility of road switchers, and US production of the FA line ended in 1956, with Canadian production ending in 1959.
  From the 1970s until 1999, the MTA Long Island Rail Road used 20 FA units converted into "power packs". The traction motors were removed, and original prime movers replaced with 600 horsepower (450 kW) engines/generators solely for supplying HEP. The engineer's control stand was left intact, allowing the engines to be used in push-pull service with other locomotives, which usually lacked HEP. By the late 1990s and early 2000s, the railroad began retiring the ALCOs in favor of new bi-level cab cars and locomotives with HEP installed.
caption: A MLW FPA-4 of the Canadian National Railway in September 1965
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