Introduced in 1963, the ALCO C424 was one of the first models in the builder’s new “Century” line, intended to modernise its diesel range and compete directly with EMD and General Electric. Rated at 2,400 horsepower from the 16-cylinder 251 engine, the type was conceived as a versatile four-axle road-switcher, suitable for both main line freight and secondary duties.
At a glance, the C424 carried the hallmarks of ALCO’s late-period design. A relatively low, purposeful stance, a long hood with widely spaced radiator grilles, and a cab that retained a slightly older, heavier look than its competitors. Compared with the sharper, more angular GE U25B or the ubiquitous EMD GP35, the C424 felt like a continuation of ALCO’s RS-series thinking, refined rather than reinvented.
A total of 190 units were built between 1963 and 1967, with production split between ALCO in the United States and Montreal Locomotive Works in Canada. The type found favour across a wide spread of railroads, from Erie Lackawanna and Reading in the east to Canadian Pacific and Nacionales de México further afield. No single customer dominated the order book, which gives the class a pleasing variety of liveries and detail differences.
For modellers of the 1970s and 1980s, the C424 becomes particularly interesting. Many units passed through the complex reshuffling of the Conrail era, emerging in patched or repainted form on lines such as the Delaware & Hudson. The D&H fleet, rebuilt at GE’s Hornell shops in 1980, is a good example of how these locomotives refused to fade quietly, instead finding second lives on regional and shortline railroads well into the later diesel era.
The type never achieved the sales success of its competitors, and in truth, it arrived at a difficult moment for ALCO, whose domestic locomotive business would soon come to an end. Even so, the C424 has endured in preservation and on secondary lines, a reminder of a manufacturer still capable of producing distinctive and capable power in its final years.
Allagash Railway
Delaware & Hudson Railway ALCo / GE C424m
The D&H C424ms were not standard C424s but heavy rebuilds carried out by General Electric at Hornell in 1980. The work included fitting new 12-cylinder 251C engines rated at 2,000 hp, along with revised air intake and cooling arrangements and upgraded electrical systems intended to improve reliability and reduce maintenance requirements. In effect, they became a distinct subclass despite their outward similarity.
Externally, detail differences reflected their rebuild origins. Units 451–456 had their rear “eyebrow” number boards cut back and featured additional ducting along the engineer’s side of the long hood, while 461–463 retained the original protruding number boards and lacked this ducting.
The fleet split neatly into two groups:
451–456: ex-Conrail units (originally Erie Lackawanna and Reading) that remained with the D&H into the Guilford era and beyond.
461–463: financed by Genesee & Wyoming for dedicated salt traffic, and returned in 1985.
