Didn't I Just See You Two Weeks Ago?

The locomotive pictured on the front of this post card is a Baldwin DT6-6-2000. It is seen here with a freight train on May 20, 1971 at Minneapolis.

Two weeks ago, I posted about its sister locomotive (Number 21) which worked for the same railroad, the Minneapolis, Northfield & Southern Railway. These two locomotives are twin-engined diesel-electric transfer switchers, built by Baldwin Locomotive Works between 1946 and 1950. 45 locomotives were built using 6-cylinder turbocharged 606SC prime movers during 1948–1950. Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern Railway #21 is the only DT-6-6-2000 preserved. It is owned by the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois where it remains in operable condition. Adam Burns of American Rails https://www.american-rails.com/20001.html writes this about the Baldwin DT6-6-2000: The DT-6-6-2000 was one of the most interesting models released by a major manufacturer. This design was a specialized type of locomotive intended for use in heavy drag service over short distances, such as on terminal railroads or moving cuts of cars between local yards. Believing that there was a market for such, Baldwin released the DT-6-6-2000 directly after World War II, one of first models to employ the company's own prime mover. As a switcher, it was massive and, longer than virtually every road switcher or cab unit on the market at that time. As John Kirkland explains in "The Diesel Builders: Volume Three," the locomotive featured dual control stands for maximum flexibility, thus allowing operation in either direction without turning the locomotive. Ironically, for a design geared towards switching, the DT-6-6-2000 retained a high-hood on both ends, thus restricting a crew's 360-degree view from either the ground (seeing the engineer) or the cab (seeing the crew). Unfortunately, the design had mechanical issues and railroads were never really interested in such a specialized locomotive resulting in fewer than 50 constructed when production had ended.

This post card is another of the post cards in my collection from Mary Jayne’s Railroad Specialties. I have written about her many times because I have 243 of her post cards in my collection. The photo was taken by A. Robert Johnson.