| L&N RS36 912 at Corbin, Kentucky on September 18, 1979, photo by Gib Allbach, Chuck Zeiler collection. Built in February 1963 for the Tennessee Central as 303 (c/n 84406) on Order S-3356, it was one of the last three RS36's built by Alco. Upon the bankruptcy of the TC, declared on January 14, 1968, three railroads expressed interest in parts of the TC, and in May 1968 to L&N acquired 10 diesels and 25 freight cars and leased most of them back to the TC. That lasted until August 14, 1968 when the backruptcy judge divided the TC among the IC, L&N and Southern, with the L&N paying $525,000 for the Nashville-Crossville main line and Old Hickory and Carthage branches. The following is excerpted from the book, A Centennial Remembrance, by Richard T. Steinbrenner: During late 1961, early 1962, Alco decided to upgrade the 1800 horsepower RS11 (DL-701) design with improvements that had been introduced in the RS27 and RS32. For this design, Alco maintained the specification DL-701, but gave it a new designation, RS36. Externally the RS36 had the same hood features as the RS27 and RS32, and had the same overall length. Production of the RS36 began between the first NYC order and the SP order, the first units were part of an order from the Nickel Plate, which was completed after the conclusion of the RS32 production. A total of 11 units were delivered to the NKP, on which the railroad traded in its PA-1's. The last two NKP RS36's were high nose units equipped with steam genrators, completing NKP's conversion to road switchers for its remaining passenger service. In typical trade-in fashion, the PA's GT 566 main generators were re-used in the RS36's. The final RS36 production was for the Tennessee Central, for which a single unit each was delivered in April, June, and August 1963. A total of 40 RS36's were built. |