Model of Southern Pacific KM4000 type-II
2xMD870, 2xVoith L830rU
In 1961 Krauss-Maffei delivered the first 6 of what turned out to be only a handful of locomotives to The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad (3) and the Southern Pacific Railroad (also 3). The first batch delivered were carbody locomotives with what the Americans called "Turret" cabs; the second batch looked like conventional US road switchers. All 15 of these were delivered to SP in 1964. Brazil also bought 16 of the road switcher type. Both types were fitted with 2xMD870's rated at 2000 metric hp a piece (Some US publications quote the installed power as 3450hp, presumably due to differences in horse power calculation, such as power at rail rather than power at the flywheel) driving into two Voith L830rU hydraulic transmissions. Anyway, they weren't a great success and the D&RGW sold theirs to SP who persevered with them for a while longer (including commissioning 3 ALCo DH-643's - the same transmission, but with ALCo 12-251's) until 1968, when SP finally gave up too. Only one survives, amazingly after 30+ years & it's strange post operational experiences, with the Pacific Locomotive Association. Between 1986 and 2008 it stood in Sacremento under the ownership of California State Railroad Museum where little preservation work was done. The rest fell to the cutters torch.
Read about No.9010's amazing survival on the Southern Pacific Railfan website:
http://espee.railfan.net/sp-camera_car.html
Of particular interest is the following website, set up in 2008 by the Pacific Locomotive Associations 9010 crew:
http://sp9010.ncry.org/index.htm
This site also has a pretty comprehensive page on the rise and fall of the Brazilian ML4000s.
For a better idea of what both types of US locomotives looked like, have a look at these pics on the SP Railfan website. The two D&RGW pictures show "before" and "after" views of the "Turret Cab" loco's. These locos were retro fitted with "Elephant Ear" air intakes after tests in hot & high operating conditions had shown the engines would stall due to lack of cool air when running through the many tunnels on D&RGW's routes. This modification was obviously removed when SP took over the locos as the picture of 9023 (an ex-D&RGW machine) shows:
http://www.northeast.railfan.net/diesel115.html
There are a vast number of pictures on "The Robert Morris Photography Photo Catalogue" website. This was the largest collection of ML4000 pictures on the web until the Pacific Locomotive Association 9010 web site became active.. Because copies of all of these pictures can be bought via this website, the image quality is low. Also includes pictures of the ALCo DH643's:
Black & White: http://www.snowcrest.net/photobob/km.html
Colour: http://www.snowcrest.net/photobob/ckm.html
For a couple more pictures, follow the link to Rob Coxs' "Yard Clerk Collection" page. There are two pictures toward the bottom of the page, one of a "Turret Cab" in Southern Pacific livery - The other picture shows one of the former D&RGW loco's after it was bought by SP alongside a GP-9 and one of the "Road Switcher" hydraulics.
http://home.earthlink.net/~robjacox/yardclerk/sp.html <This link is now Dead!
If anyone is able to provide me with a link to this sites new location, I'd be glad to receive it.
There are a couple of very good 1:25th scale line drawings of the original units by Joshua Moldover on the "Railroad Paintshop" website:
http://paintshop.railfan.net/bald_fm.html#K-M
For a good read, here is the "Operating Manual" for "ML4000 C'C Locomotives", on the "Erie Lackawanna & Other Fallen Flag and Shortline Photos" site:
http://gelwood.railfan.net/manual/km-gen.html
Despite all this major activity, the first US flirtation with Maybach MD series engines was performed in 1956-60 by the New Haven Railroad and the New York Central Railroad. They each commissioned a series of lightweight train prototypes, including two built by Pullman-Standard to a design they called "Train-X", which were powered by one (NYC's "X-Plorer") or two (NH's "Dan'l Webster) Baldwin locomotives each powered by a single MD655 driving a Mekydro K104 hydraulic transmission. They were rated at 1000hp and had the engine and transmission fixed to the long leading bogie. An auxiliary engine was also fitted to provide power for the air conditioning and lighting, which was a Maybach MD440 (V8) rated at 570hp in the NYC locomotive or 465hp in the NH locomotives. The power bogie of the NH units were also fitted with 150hp traction motors which were powered by electricity collected from a third rail by collector shoes mounted on the trailing bogie in tunnel areas. They weren't a great success. Follow the link to find out what happened on the first NH press run......!
http://www.kelseypub.com/ct-guide/railroad/danlfire.shtml
A picture of the "Dan'l Webster" can be found on the website of the New Haven Railroad Historical and Technical Association:
http://www.nhrhta.org/htdocs/photo1.htm
And on this page there is a picture of the NYC "X-Plorer" set, in the middle of the fifth line of photos from the top. There are also pictures of the ACF Talgo (in pre Maybach days though) on this page too!!
http://www.northeast.railfan.net/diesel38.html
On the "Erie Lackawanna & Other Fallen Flag and Shortline Photos" site, I've found a NYC line drawing with technical details of these locomotives. NYC classed the locomotives as "DH-1a".
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/nyc/nyc-dh1a.gif
22nd June 2002 - Note that the links for the Erie Lackawanna & Other Fallen Flag & Shortline Photo's site currently offers only a note about the site having been temporarily suspended due to bandwidth limits being exceeded. Leaving the knotty business of ISP/Site bandwidth aside, the site should return with a new URL at some point later this year.
14th July 2002 - I've been passed a link to the ALCOList website which has a short story about the testing of the ALCo DH-643's. Very interesting.
12th January 2003 - The "Erie Lackawanna & Other Fallen Flags" site has returned. Links have been updated, however the "Rob Cox's Yard Clerk Collection" site has disappeared.
15th July 2004 - The "Baldwin Diesel Zone" has come to my attention as a site with some pictures and limited information about the Baldwin built RP210 locomotives.