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Baldwin's "DS-4-4-750": A 606NA-Powered Switcher

Last revised: September 19, 2024

By: Adam Burns

The DS-4-4-750 was a lightly powered switcher locomotive Baldwin cataloged during a two-year production run, from 1949-1950.

It was slightly more powerful than its earlier counterpart (DS-4-4-660), but less powerful than the DS-4-4-1000.

The switcher saw lukewarm interest, largely because the 1,000 horsepower variant had shown such strong demand.

Overview

The Baldwin Locomotive Works initially had a pessimistic view toward the diesel-electric (despite dabbling with diesel technology as early as 1925, and gasoline-powered switchers as far back as 1910). 

Management, even into the 1940's, viewed it as an inferior motive power type when compared against tried and proven steam locomotive.

Today, two DS-4-4-750's remain extant; Weyerhaeuser Timber #101 (former plant switcher #300) is preserved at the Train Mountain Railroad Museum in Chiloquin, Oregon and Warner Sand & Gravel #14 is owned by the Reading Company Technical & Historical Society.

Photos

Santa Fe DS-4-4-750 #625 at Argentine Yard in Argentine, Kansas, circa 1965. American-Rails.com collection.

The DS-4-4-750 began production in the summer of 1949 using the builder's latest 606NA model prime mover. Producing 750 horsepower, the DS-4-4-750 was a mid-grade switcher as Baldwin also produced a 660 horsepower and 1,000 horsepower model.

Using a B-B truck arrangement the model found a diversity of buyers from Class I railroads like the Pennsylvania, Erie, and Santa Fe to industrial companies like American Cynamid, Youngstown Sheet & Tube, and American Steel & Wire.

Santa Fe DS-4-4-750 #626 is seen here in Kansas, circa 1960. American-Rails.com collection.

As with the American Locomotive, Baldwin at the time still held a loyal following by some railroads that had worked with it for years during the reign of steam. The PRR, for instance, purchased examples of nearly every Baldwin diesel it ever produced.

Data Sheet and Specifications

Production Roster

Total Built = 53

* Originally Baldwin's plant switcher, #300.  It became Weyerhaeuser Timber #301 on January 29, 1956.

Sources

• Foster, Gerald. A Field Guide To Trains. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.
  


• Kirkland, John F. Diesel Builders, The:  Volume Three, Baldwin Locomotive Works. Pasadena: Interurban Press, 1994.


• Pinkepank, Jerry A. Diesel Spotter's Guide.  Milwaukee: Kalmbach Publishing Company, 1967.


• Solomon, Brian.  Baldwin Locomotives.  Minneapolis:  Voyageur Press, 2009.

After less than two years in production, Baldwin removed the DS-4-4-750 from its catalog, replacing it with the S-8 (the offered just slightly more horsepower) and the more powerful S-12.

The DS-4-4-750, and later DS-4-4-1000, also ended the company's use of its confusing classification system, which could be traced back to the steam era and "Whyte Notation."

In 1950, after it released upgraded prime movers (the model 606 and 608) it likewise used a simpler system of model type and horsepower (for instance, the S-12 meant Switcher, 1,200 horsepower).