Power type Diesel-hydraulic Serial number S-3374-01 – S-3374-03 Build date September 1964 | Order number S-3374 Model DH-643 | |
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Builder American Locomotive Company (ALCO) | ||
The ALCO C-643DH, also known as the Century 643DH, was a twin-engine diesel-hydraulic locomotive, the first diesel-hydraulic road unit built in the United States. It had a C-C wheel arrangement and generated 4,300 horsepower (3,200 kW). Only three were built, all for Southern Pacific Railroad in 1964 (#9018–#9020). The Alco C-643DHs joined 21 Krauss-Maffei ML-4000 diesel-hydraulics already on the Southern Pacific's roster. These hydraulic-drive diesels spent most of their service lives in the flat San Joaquin Valley in California.
Dissatisfaction over the poor performance of diesel-hydraulic locomotives, as well as their use of foreign-made components (the hydraulic transmission was of German Voith design), eventually led Southern Pacific to scrap the C-643DHs in 1973.