| Burlington Northern Railroad class ARS-11 4188 in the dead line at Cicero, Illinois on an unknown day in September 1980, Kodachrome by Chuck Zeiler. Built in July 1958 as NP RS11 908 (c/n 82952), it became BN ARS-11 4188 and was retired from the BN in August 1980, went on to become DOWX 1006. The five square vent openings at the top of the long hood indicates this unit was equipped with dynamic brakes. An unfortunate location for the hand brake (likely because the demonstrators were set up to run long hood forward), it did not play well with most railroad's paint schemes. The RS11 (Alco's internal model specification was DL-701) introduced the new Model 251 prime mover and replaced the RS3 in Alco's 1956 catalog. It was intended to directly compete with EMD's GP9, but did not fare well, with a total production of 356 units, plus 75 produced in Canada by MLW, versus EMD's GP9 production of 3,444 units. |