| Terminal Railroad Association of Saint Louis VO-660 531 at La Grange, Illinois on November 15, 1964, photo by Chuck Zeiler. Number 531 was built in July 1940 (c/n 62395) and was retired sometime before this photo date as it is seen on Pielet Brothers (scrapper) setout track across from EMD's plant in La Grange. It was powered by a 6-cylinder normally-aspired De La Vergne VO diesel developing 660 horsepower. It appears that 14 VO-660's were built with the oval radiator grill intake and side exhausts for the radiator heat. By 1941 this radiator arrangement was changed to the more familiar peaked front intake and top exhaust. This was the result of Baldwin purchasing radiators (and using spring mounts for cushioning) instead of assembling them. The assembled units often leaked with hard coupling moves, and were more expensive to assemble and install. The resulting VO-660 (and VO-1000) switchers were lengthened by 10 inches to accommodate the new radiator system, and later refinements included an expansion tank mounted just above the radiator, and automatic shutters. |