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Metra SW1

(Requires the Milwaukee Road SW1s by long / TermedSaturn942 and the SW1 Template Livery by Jeri_).

Metra No. 1 was one of 661 SW1 switchers built between December 1938 and November 1953. All of them were built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors at their plant in LaGrange, Illinois. This LaGrange is not the same as the town after which the ZZ Top song is named. The technical specifications of the SW1 are as follows:

Wheel Arrangement: Bo-Bo
Wheel Diameter: 1,016 millimetres
Wheelbase: 9.14 metres
Length: 13.70 metres
Width: 3.05 metres
Height: 4.38 metres
Weight: 89 metric tonnes
Prime Mover: EMD 567
Engine Type: V6 2-stroke diesel
Aspiration: Roots-type Supercharger
Power Output: 600 horsepower
Cylinders: 6
Cylinder Diameter: 216 x 254 millimetres
Tractive Effort: 22,000 kilograms

What we know today as Metra No. 1 originally entered service as Illinois Central No. 9016 on the 21st of December 1939. She was renumbered to 603 in 1951 and sold to the Rock Island system in 1970. Under Rock Island ownership, the engine was renumbered again - this time to 4801. Metra later inherited two SW1 locomotives from Rock Island in the early 1980s, after the Ri (full name - Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad) went bankrupt.

Today the two locomotives are used for maintenance trains on the Metra Electric and Rock Island District lines. The 2nd of these two SW1's was built in 1945. Still going strong at 81 years old, Metra No. 1 is now the oldest operational diesel locomotive in the US that is not preserved.