ALCO Century 415

The ALCO Century 415 was a diesel locomotive of B-B wheel arrangement produced by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) as part of their Century Series of locomotives.

It was a large switcher or small roadswitcher equipped with a raised cab mounted slightly off-center, with a lower, narrower hood on either side. The longer one contained the diesel engine, a 1500 hp Alco 251-F, while the shorter contained auxiliaries. The C415 could be ordered with three different cab heights; a low one for minimum clearances, a regular height one, and an extra-height one for maximum visibility.

Trucks fitted were either AAR Type B or ALCO Hi-Ad (high adhesion).

The locomotive was not that popular; 26 were built between 1966 and 1968 for seven different owners.

• Hammersley Iron in Australia bought the prototype, formerly lettered as ALCO 415. (Medium height cab, Type B trucks)
• Chehalis Western bought a single high cab unit with Hi-Ad trucks.
• Columbia & Cowlitz bought a single high cab unit with Hi-Ad trucks. (this and Chehalis Western are both Weyerhauser Paper properties)
• Monongahela Connecting bought a single low cab unit with Hi-Ad trucks.
• Rock Island Railroad bought ten medium cab units with AAR Type B trucks.
• Southern Pacific Railroad bought ten high cab units with AAR Type B trucks. One of these subsequently passed to Nekoosa Papers.
• Spokane, Portland & Seattle bought two medium cab units with Hi-Ad trucks; these passed to the Burlington Northern Railroad after the merger.