| CRI&P AB6 750, 47th Street, Chicago, Illinois, March 28, 1965, photo by Chuck Zeiler. Built in June 1940 (c/n 1066) on EMC Order E306B, it was sold for scrap to Joliet Railway Equipment during January 1974. As originally built, it had a single 12-567 prime mover and a baggage section where the second prime mover would be. The concept was to run this locomotive (with an E6A leading) on the Rocky Mountain Rocket from Chicago to Limon, Colorado, where the train was broken into two sections, one going to Denver, and the AB6 would power the other section to Colorado Springs. Although two A-units could have sufficed, at the time Rock Island's management was concerned about the aesthetics of the train. One prime mover proved insufficient as the passenger load increased, and this unit and 751 (another AB6) were returned to EMD for installation of a second prime mover (I'm trying to find the date the second prime mover was added), making them E6B's with a cab. Sometime during 1965, both AB6's exchanged their steam generators for HEP power plants and were assigned to commuter service. |