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This information originally appeared in the Mopac Yahoo Group and has been transferred here to make it more accessible for research.
July 29, 2010
Has anyone any information on where, when and how the BL-2s were used please? Thanks.
Gerry 9253
Gerry,
You might want to obtain a copy of the Winter 2006 Eagle from the MPHS. It contains an interesting article by Donald Smith about operations of
Train No. 275 powered by BL2s in southern Arkansas and northern Louisiana. There are a number of photos of BL2s supporting the article. Early on in 1948 they were used in Kansas with photographic documentation of 4107 at Topeka.There are EMD and MoPac company photographs of brand new locomotives as they were first delivered. However in-service photos of MoPac’s BL2
locomotives are very scarce. There are three primary reasons for this.(1) The locomotives were extremely unreliable and were usually in the shop being repaired before being put out to pasture prematurely.
(2) Because of their inherent ugliness, during the infrequent occasions that BL2s were actually was assigned to a train, MoPac management
permitted the locomotives to run only at night and required them to be parked inside a roundhouse and out of sight from dawn to dusk.(3) BL2s weren’t permitted in Texas because state law didn’t permit any locomotive that ugly to enter the state. If a southbound BL2 showed up
trying to get past the state line in Texarkana, switchmen were instructed to run the locomotive into a siding with a derail. Therefore, renowned MoPac photographer Ralph Carlson of South Texas never got the chance to take a photo of one. A genuine pity.All in good fun. Regards,
Ed Hawkins
Come on, Ed. If that were the case those awful looking Texas Mexican Railway boxcabs would never have been allowed in the state.
Granted, from what I have read BL-2s were a head ache to service because of their unusual carbody. Also, their truss frame was rather brittle. These were two of the factors that led to many BL-2s being retired early by most railroads who owned them.
BL-2s: You either love em or hate em.
On pages 54 and 55 of Jim Boyd’s book Missouri Pacific in Color Volume 1 there are three photographs of BL-2s at North Little Rock and Hope, Arkansas. On page 35 of Lloyd E. Stagner’s Missouri Pacific’s Steam to Diesel Era: 1945 – 1955 there is a photograph of a BL-2 at Topeka laying over between runs from Osawatomie, Kansas soon after delivery in 1948.
From 1948 to 1955 BL-2s were operated on the Central Kansas – Colorado Division. From 1955 to very early 1960s BL-2s were operated on the Arkansas and Louisianna – Little Rock Divisions. In the very early 1960s they were traded in for GP-18s.
David Budka
In the late ’50’s-early 60’s, they were frequent visitors at the engine facility in El Dorado, AR.
Jim Tatum.
July 31, 2010
The BL-2s were used as freight locomotives. I have not seen any references to them being used in passenger service, and they were not equipped with train heating boilers. They were used on freights running from Osawatomie to Topeka, Kansas from 1948 to 1955. I have also seen a picture of one mu’d with a GP-7 at Salina, Kansas. There is a picture of two BL-2s pulling the Kansas City to Pueblo extra west through Hutchinson, Kansas. Furthermore, there are pictures of BL-2s operating in double or singularly in Arkansas after 1955. They were traded in in 1962 for GP-18s.In Arkansas they were used for hauling lumber, oil, and chemicals. On Train 275 there could be found pulpwood cars box cars, tank cars, cement hoppers, and gondolas.
David A. Budka, Omaha, NE
According to Mike Adams one of the real problems with the BL2 was it was not as responsive at the throttle due to the way it “loaded up” which was a real problem if the locomotive were used as a switch engine. They could not accelerate quickly to “kick” a cut of cars which created problems if the BL came into town on a local, switched the refinery, and then left on another local (which was the assignment if it were El Dorado, KS in 1950 or El Dorado, AR in 1956).They were useful on a secondary freight or local but the blind spots created by the carbody caused the engineer to lose sight of the brakeman whenever switching was done. This was before walkie talkies (handy talkies) were in use by switching crews.
I haven’t been able to document their use on the Collinston to Natchez (MS) branch or the lines north out of McGehee or into Memphis (nor the Illinois coal fields) but they were very common in southwestern Arkansas or southeastern Kansas.
Jim Ogden, Fort Worth, Texas
I photographed a BL-2 in Hope (Arkansas) during the summer of 1952.
John Fike, College Station
Most of the history books that deal with the BL-2 say they were a flop. They were EMD’s first attempt at a road-switcher after the NW-5. Their second shot, the GP-7 was monumentally successful! According to Robert Hundman, in Diesel Data Series Book 3, the BL-2 was originally designed not to operate in multiple-units, but the apparent flexibility of such operation resulted in BL-2s being shipped so equipped. Here the weakness of the truss frame manifested itself.Another good source is the Winter 2005 Eagle. On page 10 there is a paragraph about how the BL-2s faired against steam engines on the Central Kansas – Colorado Division.
Central Kansas & Colorado Division Superintendent C.C. Chapman praised the operation of the somewhat belittled BL2. All eight of the 4100 series BL2s were put in local service on the CK-C Divisions. Then, when they were laid-over on weekends, the BL2s were used in yard service while yard steam engines were serviced. The BL2s could operate 72 hours without refueling, whereas the steam engines required fuel and service every eight hours.
There is also a map on page 9 showing how dieselization progressed across the Missouri Pacific system. On page 18 there is an interior photograph of the Osawatomie diesel shop with a BL-2 inside. It would be interesting to find out if some of the eight units traveled the MP system to determine their performance in different areas as dieselization spread. That might explain the presence of a BL-2 in Arkansas during the early 1950s.
David A. Budka, Omaha, NE
Reviving an old thread, but I was curious as to whether the BL2s were used in the Natchez MS, area. I’m quite interested in what was based there from an MP standpoint in addition to the MSC SWs and solo GP28. I would have thought a switcher would have been the most handy type of unit but I’ve seen pictures of low nosed GP7s there on the carfloat jetty.
Regards, Ben
In the mid and late 50’s the BL2s operated north between Monroe (LA ) and Gurdon (AR) and likely could have operated on the branch to Vidalia and Ferriday since they were assigned to the division. However their car body design created some significant blind spots and they would have been scary to use on loading a car ferry. Also, I was once told they responded at the throttle like an F3 with a lag in loading up which made them poor choices as yard switchers. So I could imagine a pair of the beasts doing locals on the branch but not on the ferry itself. They would have probably pushed cars into the river!
Jim Ogden
January 7, 2018
The November 1995 issue of the Arkansas Railroader contains a lengthy article on the Womble branch, one of the areas where BL2 locomotives were assigned to replace the last of steam. A PDF of that issue is included with this BL2 discussion.
Bill Pollard[attachment=0:1ob50xen]Arkansas-Railroader-NOV-1995.pdf[/attachment:1ob50xen]
Granted, from what I have read BL-2s were a head ache to service because of their unusual carbody. Also, their truss frame was rather brittle. These were two of the factors that led to many BL-2s being retired early by most railroads who owned them.
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