The Illinois Railway Museum has restored perhaps the oldest bicentennial diesel locomotive in existence. Ingersoll-Rand 91 was the eighth production diesel locomotive ever built and was constructed in 1926 by a consortium of American Locomotive Company, General Electric and Ingersoll-Rand. The 300-horsepower diesel engine was perfect for low-speed switching and was sold to the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western as its 3001. 

The boxy locomotive worked at the DL&W’s Brooklyn rail yard for a quarter century before being sold back to Ingersoll-Rand, which used it as a shop switcher in Phillipsburg, N.J., from 1951 until 1984. It was then donated to IRM. During its time at Ingersoll-Rand, the locomotive was painted in a special red, white and blue livery to celebrate the nation’s 200th birthday. 

As the only locomotive at IRM to have been given a special patriotic livery for the bicentennial, I-R 91 was selected by Diesel Department volunteers for cosmetic restoration during the nation’s semiquincentennial year. The locomotive is complete and largely in good condition. Restoration work in recent years has included rebuilding the trucks and replacing air tanks and piping, but significant funding is still necessary to rebuild the locomotive’s electric traction motors. The museum intends to eventually restore the locomotive to operation, which would make it the oldest operational diesel-electric locomotive in the country.

—Justin Franz