Dan Patch Electric Lines 100 Boxcab Gas-Electric This is one of the first handful of locomotives built which used an internal combustion engine rather than steam power. It's name, the "Dan Patch", comes from its first owner the Dan Patch Electric Lines. Dan Patch was a famous race horse a hundred years ago, and the railroad was named after him because its tracks between Minneapolis and Northfield passed very close to his owner's farm. Technologically, the Dan Patch is very interesting. General Electric claimed it to be the first internal-combustion locomotive with a generator to drive electric traction motors. (Though in fact it was the second.) As such, it was a direct ancestor of the Diesel locomotive which replaced steam by 1960 on America's railroads. It was later converted to streetcar technology. Then, when converted to diesel in 1957, all the streetcar controls were retained and the diesel engine-generator set assumed the same role as the trolley pole. General Electric No. 100 S/N 3763 Built 6-1913 Engines (2) GM-16C4 Motors (4) GE 205 D Weight 57 tons Housed at the Minnesota Transportation Museum's Jackson Street Roundhouse For more information please see http://www.mtmuseum.org/jsr/roster/dpl100.html -- Bill Toenjes (TooMuchDew)