Northwest of Chicago, the small town of Union, Illinois is home to the Illinois Railway Museum, the largest railroad museum in the country. IRM is home to dozens of locomotives of all types, freight cars, traction, passenger, steam – literally everything railroad related. Being so close to Chicago, IRM certainly has an “EMD” feel to it – in fact, they have the giant EMD sign that once graced the LaGrange plant.

IRM is also home to a trio of Winton survivors – An 8-201, an 8-201A powered switcher, and a 12-201A. Lets take a quick look at the three.

In the back of Barn 9 sits a lone 8-201 engine on a skid. This, is one of two Winton engines that powered the Chevrolet production line at the 1934 Century of Progress exposition. In fact, I did a post on just that – https://vintagedieseldesign.com/2021/01/02/the-winton-201-at-the-century-of-progress/

The overall success of this very engine would lead to bigger and better things for Winton, and parent company General Motors.

Sitting out back on a flat car, is Winton #5222, a 12-201A shipped 5/25/1937 on order#170 to the Union Pacific Railroad. Unfortunately, that is all the records note – however we can decipher what this was for – the EMC E2A that was built for the prestige City of San Francisco streamliner. The locomotive became part of the Southern Pacific roster at the end of the joint train, and rebuilt into an E7A in 1953, at which time the locomotive was repowered with a pair of 567 engines. The old Winton engines would languish in a scrap yard for many years, and were finally saved by the California State Railway Museum. One of these engines made its way to IRM in 2009. I hope one day this engine can be preserved and made into a nice static display. More on the E2 here: http://espee.railfan.net/sp-e-02a.html

The final Winton at IRM, is still in a locomotive, Dardanelle & Russellville 14, an EMC SC. The locomotive was built as the Missouri Pacific 9001 in 1937. Unlike sister engine 9000 which was upgraded by EMD with a 567B engine, this one still retains its original 8 cylinder 201A, and is in virtually as built condition. IRM has since moved this vintage engine inside. A photo gallery of it is here: https://www.irm.org/gallery/DR14?page=1

Only 13 Winton 201/201A engines are accounted for in 2023, with only a handful more other Winton models to compliment that. Be sure to check out IRM if you are in the Chicago area, it is well worth a visit.

Work has begun on our next big post, a 4 part series on the EMD 12-567ATL engine, the LST powerplant that helped win WWII.

Earlier this year, I was able to pickup a large group of original Winton (and some Cleveland) prints. One of the tugs there was prints of, is the Turecamo Boys. I remember seeing this photo several years ago when we were at the Cleveland Public Library going through bound volumes of Winton News.

Yes – that is a swastika you are seeing. More on that in a bit. The Turecamo Boys was designed by the Brown & Demarest Naval Architects of NY, and built by Rice Brothers Shipyard up in Maine. Well, as happenstance would have it I was also able to get an original copy of the Winton news featuring this tug! I will let the issue of Winton News fill in the details.

The tug was powered by a single direct reversing Winton 6-174A engine, introduced in 1931. The engine had a 15 1/2″ bore and 22″ stroke, making 600 horsepower. The engine was one of Winton’s more successful direct reversing models, and was used in several other tugs. A larger 8 cylinder model was offered, but not produced.

As for the swastika – Remember when this tug was built in 1936, the symbol had an entirely different meaning. The following newspaper article explains why Barney Turecamo used the symbol on his tugs – for luck, as suggested by the tugs designer, Merritt Demarest , a common use in pre-WWII days. Turecamo Article on Swastika Symbol

It turned out not only did I get the shot I recognized, but the other two photos in the Winton News as well.

Unfortunately, the Turecamo Boys did not fare well. Shortly after being requisitioned for the oncoming war, the tug would be sunk in the North Atlantic. http://www.tugboatinformation.com/tug.cfm?id=1891

Sister tug Turecamo Girls had a slightly better fate. In 1945, Turecamo opted to repower the Girls with a 16-278A. At the same time, a brand new Turecamo Boys replacement was built by Jakobson Shipbuilding of Oyster Bay. The new Boys would be slightly smaller, at 80′ 4 1/2″, and powered by a smaller 8-278A engine. Merritt Demarest designed this new tug as well, which looked very much like the original Turecamo Boys.

The Turecamo Girls would work for Turecamo until being sold foreign in 1965, with the “new” Turecamo Boys being sold off not long after. Merritt Demarest would continue to design tugs (including a number for Turecamo) until passing away in 1979 at the age of 82.

I had posted the first photo of the tug in the Tugboatinformation.com facebook group, which led to a great discussion about the use of the swastikas’ by Turecamo. I was quite surprised when Robert Pacheco saved and colorized the photo! Turecamo used a wonderful wood grained steel paint job on their tugs, which Robert nailed.