Locomotive Power: Alco FA-1 (Amtrak 2036)

On a whim I recently purchased an Aristo-Craft Amtrak FA-1 as I thought the PE&A needed passenger service. As the theme for my railroad is the 1970s it seemed appropriate to acquire an older style Amtrak locomotive.

Not running yet—just out for a photo op.

The FA-1 was a diesel locomotive designed for hauling freight trains that was manufactured by Alco between 1946 and 1950. A total of 445 FA-1 units and 249 FB-1 units were built—the FB-1 was a booster locomotive without a cab designed to trail behind the FA-1. Aristo-Craft also created an FB-1 unit in Amtrak colors which I may need to acquire someday. And, of course, some passenger cars.

This locomotive is inaccurate in the sense that an FA-1 was never used by Amtrak. When Amtrak was created in 1971 it inherited numerous locomotives of all sorts from railroads that had been providing regional and long distance passenger service, but not a single Alco FA-1 was included. And it’s unlikely one would have been since this locomotive wasn’t designed for passenger service. A very similar locomotive, the FPA-2, was manufactured by Alco in the 1950s for passenger service, although Amtrak didn’t inherit one of those either.

Burlington Northern inherited a few FA-1 units from Great Northern and several units from the Spokane, Portland & Seattle, so it's likely this locomotive would have been seen around the Palouse on a regular basis. But they would have been hauling freight, not passengers.

Amtrak 2036 in the shop for a tune-up.

When it arrived I immediately put it on a track to test it out and…it didn’t move. This is always a risk when buying second hand trains from non-train sellers on eBay, who can describe what it looks like but couldn't tell you a thing about it's actual condition. So out came the tools and off came the hood, and after a bit of fiddling with the wires I was able to validate both the trucks were operational and it seems to be in decent condition. I hope to have it running outside as soon as track is up to code.

Checking out the wires for the front truck. Looks like one got severely pinched somehow, which might be part of the problem.

Multi-page diagrams like this one can be found online showing how all the parts fit together. These are very useful for taking apart and reassembling the locomotive. And I get to learn what the names of the locomotive parts are in the process.