On ‘Centipedes’ & ‘Sharknoses’

IT WAS good to see the interesting and informative article about these locomotives and I certainly enjoyed the read, but it needs a few corrections. The road switcher equivalent of the 1600hp RF16 was the AS16 – there were no AS12s, although there was a 1200hp RS12 ‘light road switcher’.

The ‘pair of Pennsylvania RF16s’ pictured on the empty stock working are actually DR-6-4-2000s, 2000hp A1A-A1As with 2x606SC engines in a longer Sharknose body (the booster is a DR-6-4-2000B) – Pennsy’s 27 (including nine Bs) were the only passenger ‘Sharks’ and weren't a great success – there were other DR-6-42000 variants with different styling and different engines.

The Monongahela Railroad, which latterly operated the ex-New York Central ‘Sharks’, was a Pennsylvania/West Virginia coal-hauling ‘shortline’, but this wasn't the ‘Monon’. Despite the similarity in their names, the Monon was the Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville Railway, which operated mostly in Indiana and apparently took its name from the city central to its route.

The Delaware and Hudson CEO was Bruce Sterzing, rather than Scherzing. Chris Bradley

Sleaford THE ‘Monon’ was used by The Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville Railway, whose main line from Chicago to Indianapolis crossed their line from Michigan City to Louisville at the town of Monon in Indiana. They also used the additional slogan of 'The Hoosier Line'. It merged into the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (now part of CSX) in 1971. The Monongahela Railway was named after the river of the same name and it was mainly a coal hauling railroad in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. It was merged into the 'nationalised' Conrail (Consolidated Rail Corporation) in 1993.

To make it even more confusing, I believe mention could be made of the Monongahela Connecting Railroad, a small industrial line in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Richard Weller

Maidstone, I HAVE been a fan of American railroads, and in particular of American diesel locomotives, for 50 years and found the article most interesting.

The locomotive pictured at the beginning of the article on page 34 is not an RF-16 as stated in the caption but a related Baldwin type. Pennsylvania RR No. 5773 was a DR 6-4-20, a twin-engined 2000hp 12-wheel passenger train locomotive with A1A-A1A wheel arrangement introduced in 1948. Eighteen of this type of locomotive in A configuration were built for the PRR numbered Nos. 5770A

to 5787A together with nine B units to work with them numbered Nos. 5770B to 5786B, using the even numbers only. Other locomotives of this basic design were built for four other railroads, each railroad's locomotives looking different from all the others although having essentially the same 'baby-face' cab, for example, the Central New Jersey units were doubleended and the single Chicago and North Western unit having only one engine, the space that would have been occupied by the rear engine being used as a baggage compartment.

The PRR DR 6-4-20 were the only 'sharknose'-bodied locomotives of this type and the only ones with A1A-A1A trucks.

The total number of locomotives of this type built, including the PRR ones, was only 39, of which three went to Mexico.

Richard Hodder

Swindon