New York Central R-Motor

The R-Motor was the New York Central class designation for one prototype and a later fleet of 42 electric freight locomotives, all built by the ALCO and General Electric partnership for the electrified zone around New York City. The first unit answered the Kaufman Act, which banned steam locomotives in the city and forced the railroad to take its freight trains off the street on Tenth Avenue. The 42 production R-2 units used a six axle C-C arrangement and about 3,000 horsepower, and hauled freight on the West Side Freight Line. A few later worked through the Detroit River tunnels, and ten were sold to the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad in 1955. The New York Central examples were scrapped in the 1950s and 1960s and none were preserved.