The EMD FL9 is a model of electro-diesel locomotive, capable of operating either as a traditional diesel-electric locomotive or as an electric locomotive powered from a third rail ("dual power"). Sixty units were built between October 1956 and November 1960 by General Motors Electro-Motive Division for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (the "New Haven"). The locomotives were designed to allow diesel-powered trains to enter Grand Central Terminal, where non-electric locomotives are forbidden.
The FL9s were additionally intended to allow for the retirement of electric locomotives by the New Haven and the dismantling of electrification to save money. Only the electrification on the Danbury Branch was actually dismantled, negating a key reason the locomotives were purchased. However, the FL9s did make it possible for trains serving non-electrified lines to continue to Grand Central without stopping at New Haven, Connecticut, to switch locomotives.
The FL9s continued in passenger and occasional freight service under the New Haven's successor Penn Central, expanding their range to the Harlem Line and the Hudson Line in New York State. Conrail succeeded Penn Central in 1976 and sold 12 units to Amtrak for use on the Hudson Line. Its remaining units went to Metro-North Railroad in 1983, some purchased by the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT). Amtrak, Metro-North, and CTDOT all sent FL9s for rebuilding to extend their service lives.
Amtrak retired its FL9s in the late 1990s when new P32AC-DM locomotives that replicated their role entered service. Metro-North began replacing its FL9s in 1995 with new P32AC-DM locomotives, restricting them to branch lines in 2001. The remaining FL9s were no longer capable of third-rail operation due to their advanced age. New locomotives allowed for the final FL9s owned by Metro-North and CTDOT to be retired in 2009. More than 20 FL9s have been preserved at museums or with private owners; several remain in operation.
Design and production
Background Due to concerns about diesel emissions in the East River Tunnels and the underground tracks of Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station, passenger trains entering New York City have long been required to use electrical power, as coal and later diesel exhaust would pose a hazard to human health in the confined underground spaces. The ban was originally enacted by the city in 1903, and in response the New York Central Railroad installed third rail electrification on the Harlem Line, which New Haven trains used to reach Grand Central. To allow its own service to Grand Central, New Haven trackage between Woodlawn and New Haven, Connecticut, east from Grand Central, was electrified at 11,000 volts, 25 Hz AC overhead, with all catenary installed by 1914. The New Haven's pioneering system was used as an example for electrification projects by other railroads, including on the Northeast Corridor between New York and Washington, D.C.
Plans to extend the electrification eastward towards Boston were never realized due to the railroad's financial troubles. To allow passenger trains to travel to New York City from non-electrified lines without requiring a change of locomotives, the New Haven Railroad sought a class of locomotive that could switch between diesel and electric power on the fly. A replacement was also due for the railroad's 60 ALCO DL-109 locomotives built in the 1940s.
Introduction of a new dual-mode locomotive also aligned with railroad president Patrick B. McGinnis' plans to eliminate the railroad's electrification system east of Stamford, Connecticut, and scrap its entire fleet of pre-1955 electric locomotives, in a cost-cutting measure described by author Scott Hartley as "ill-advised". Key to the plan was eliminating the aging Cos Cob Power Station, built in 1906.
Design The earliest attempt at developing a dual-mode locomotive to meet this need began with a proposal to gut the internals of the DL-109s and install both a new diesel engine and equipment to collect electrical power from the third rail via contact shoes and deliver it to the traction motors. The proposal would also save money by reusing existing equipment and eliminating the cost of buying new locomotives. However, it was found unworkable because the weight of the resulting locomotive was estimated to exceed the weight restrictions on the Park Avenue Viaduct in New York City. Afterwards, both ALCO (manufacturer of the DL-109s) and Fairbanks-Morse submitted proposed dual-mode locomotive designs to the New Haven; neither proposed design was within the weight limit for the Park Avenue Viaduct.
EMD's answer was a new locomotive based on their existing EMD FP9, but lengthened to accommodate additional equipment, such as a larger train heating steam boiler, extra electrical equipment, and contact shoes for drawing power from a third rail. The resulting design was named the FL9 ("L" indicating "long"). The FL9s were the final members of the long-running EMD F-unit line, in production since 1945. Due to the additional weight and existing weight restrictions on the Park Avenue Viaduct, the locomotive was equipped with a three-axle rear truck, giving it a B-A1A wheel arrangement in the AAR system (indicating the middle axle of the rear truck is unpowered). Flexicoil trucks were used for the rear truck due to this type of truck having more room for fitting the third rail shoes. The locomotives measured in length and weighed approximately . Maximum speed was . The locomotives used D32 DC generators to supply current to the D37 DC traction motors.
For electric operation, the FL9 was capable of using either an over-running or under-running third rail by means of retractable shoes operated by pneumatic cylinders. For operation into the Pennsylvania Railroad's Pennsylvania Station, the FL9 used the Long Island Rail Road's third rail system. A DC electric compressor provided air for the brake system when the diesel engine was off. To handle the massive amount of electric current available from the third rail, the locomotive's dynamic braking system operated as a resistor when applying power from a stop or otherwise accelerating. Twenty-eight different steps within the electrical system allowed for the regulation of current supplied to the traction motors based on the locomotive's speed.
All units were painted in the bright McGinnis scheme of red-orange, black and white and the Herbert Matter-designed "NH" logo. FL9s were initially fitted with the Hancock air whistle instead of standard air horns.
Production and testing
New Haven Railroad president Patrick B. McGinnis initially proposed purchasing 88 FL9s, though the railroad was ultimately unable to afford this quantity. Instead, an initial order was placed for 30 units, numbered 2000 to 2029. The first two members of the class (2000 and 2001) began production in October 1956 and entered service with the New Haven towards the beginning of 1957. They were built with Blomberg B front trucks, but these were quickly replaced with Flexicoil trucks as the Blomberg trucks lacked room for fitting a contact shoe. They were first sent to the Harlem Line, at the time operated by the New York Central Railroad, where the third rail equipment was tested. The tests ended with units 2000 and 2001 both suffering electrical fires, so they were returned to EMD to resolve identified issues. The electrical fires were traced to issues with insulation. Testing also revealed that the contact shoes would sometimes break off of the locomotive when connecting to the third rail. EMD completed its work and returned the units to the railroad approximately six months later, and this time they completed third rail testing without issues. Full delivery of the first 30 units commenced following the satisfactory completion of testing.
The initial order of FL9s (2000 to 2029, New Haven Railroad class EDER-5, indicating electric-diesel-electric-road) were built between October 1956 and November 1957 with the 16-cylinder EMD 567C engine generating a nominal power of . The first 30 units were priced at $280,000 each () for a total cost of $8.4 million (). Several features on the first order were not repeated on the second order placed a few years later. These included the provision of an extra seat in the locomotive cabs for use by a brakeman and multiple-unit connections on both the front and rear; both of these changes were meant to support using FL9s to pull freight trains. Dynamic brakes were also excluded from the second order of FL9s, with only the resistor grids kept.
Additionally, the first 30 locomotives supplemented their contact shoes with a small DC pantograph for use within New York City's Grand Central Terminal, where long gaps exist in the third rail because of the complex trackage that includes numerous railroad switches. Short sections of overhead catenary (provided in the form of overhead mounted third rail) were placed within the terminal trackage by the New York Central in case locomotives stalled out in a gap or had issues with their contact shoes, so that locomotive power could be restored by raising a pantograph. This system was disliked and not used by most engineers, and there were multiple incidents where the pantograph was extended too soon, struck the overhead third rail and dislodged it from the ceiling; "the resulting fireworks caused considerable damage". The pantographs were deleted from the second locomotive order as a result.
The second order of FL9s (2030 to 2059, New Haven Railroad class EDER-5a) were built between June and November 1960 with the 16-cylinder EMD 567D1 engine generating nominal power of . The purchase of the second set of locomotives was only made possible by government-supported loans to the railroad. The 30 FL9s cost a total of $8,310,000 (). The changes to the design brought the weight of these units down to .
Operating history
New Haven operation
The FL9s allowed through passenger trains from Grand Central Terminal to reach Boston, Springfield, and other non-electrified destinations without the need for an engine change at New Haven, theoretically resulting in up to ten minutes of savings on train schedules. In practice, the railroad was not able to eliminate engine changes for trains at New Haven, and the required time for locomotive changes was never taken out of train timetables even for FL9-hauled trains. Once the FL9s were delivered, the New Haven promptly took all of its electric locomotives out of service apart from the 1955-built EP-5s. The arrival of FL9s also led to the retirement of most of the railroad's older diesel locomotives previously assigned to passenger service.
In 1958, New Haven Railroad president George Alpert boasted that the FL9 combined "the advantages and operating characteristics of the diesel and the electric locomotive". Trains Magazine editor David P. Morgan found this claim to be questionable, since just one of the New Haven's EP-5 electric locomotives was rated for compared to the produced by a pair of FL9s; an EP-5 could also produce double its rated continuous horsepower by overloading its engines in a brief burst. The EP-5 was also both shorter and lighter than a pair of FL9s. Morgan concluded that the purchase of the FL9s might make financial sense only if the New Haven proceeded with its plans to abandon electrification east of Stamford, Connecticut and retire electric locomotives, though the removal of the electrification would itself be a loss for the railroad.