| Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad Baldwin VO-1000 9350 at Kansas City, Missouri on January 31, 1965, Kodachrome by Lou Schmitz, Chuck Zeiler collection. This was the first of 30 VO-1000's delivered to the CB&Q during World War II. This one was built in October 1943 (c/n 69778) and traded to GE for new power during March 1967. It was sold to the ACL and went on to a second career, finally retired in 1977-78. Baldwin switchers would not have been the first choice of the CB&Q, but it was not the railroad's decision, rather the War Production Board (WPB) allocated locomotives during the war based on need, and the Burlington was in need of switchers. The WPB allocated a total of 39 diesel switchers to the Q, nine were Alco S2's, and 30 were Baldwin VO-1000's. As built, the VO-1000 had a single exhaust stack located toward the cab end offset to the left, but this proved to be restrictive, and heat would build up in the carbody, causing overheating of the main generator. The exhaust manifold was redesigned a couple of times by Baldwin, finally settling on a four stack design. This design was retro-fitted to several of the CB&Q's VO-1000's. |