#662

General Electric built No. 662 as part of the original equipment for the Panama Canal, the first of a fleet that grew to more than 100 lock-towing locomotives. At each end of the canal, three locks raised and lowered ships 85 feet, and the cable drum between the locomotive's cabs held 800 feet of one-inch steel hawser used to control ships' movement without using their own power. Initially four of these "mules" handled each ship, one on each side at each end, but as ships grew larger as many as 10 were needed. Its pulling and braking power came from a toothed cog wheel and rack rail beneath the locomotive, like systems used on mountain railroads such as Colorado's Pikes Peak, and the rack rail also let it climb the 44-degree inclines between lock chambers. No. 662 had dual electrical and mechanical controls for operation from either end. Its two 75-horsepower traction motors gave it a top speed of 5 miles per hour for moving between towing jobs, and a manual gear shift reduced its speed to 2 miles per hour for rack-and-pinion towing. Two 20-horsepower motors controlled the cable: one, producing 25,000 pounds of pull, adjusted ships' position, while the other ran faster to take up slack or pay out or reel in the cable. It used three-phase 220-volt, 25-Hertz alternating current power from underground contact rails, later changed to 440 volts and 60 Hertz. The locomotive weighed 86,300 pounds, was 32 feet 2 1/4 inches long, cost $13,092, and ran on rails five feet apart rather than the standard 4 feet 8 1/2 inches. It served on the Pacific side of the canal at the Pedro Miguel locks until July 1964, when a newer model replaced it, and the U.S. Government donated it on August 15, 1964, the 50th anniversary of the canal's opening.

Missouri · United States