The Giant came from America to fight Nazis

In 2007, when I was working in Sicily, parked inside a roundhouse I noticed two huge locomotives D.143 awaiting to be repaired.

Immediately I saw that there was something strange in their design, different from other Italian shunting locomotives, in fact on bogies and many other parts was still visible inscriptions to show that they have been built in US and not in Italy.

Looking in internet, I discovered his long and interesting history.

During the the Allied invasion not only soldiers and tanks landed in Sicily but also locomotives.

These locomotives, formerly 65-DE-14 after Ne.1200 then D143, in Italy known also as “the TRUMAN locomotive” have been built by Whitcomb Locomotive Company (Illinois, USA) and they were the first Diesel-Electric locomotives running in Italy. They helped to rebuild the Italian infrastructure after a long war.

Thanks to heritage railways associations, four of them have been preserved in Liguria and Sicily. 

In this web site you can found more info and pictures about them https://www.robertsarmory.com/whitcomb.htm