Soviet Diesel Da20-09

Under the provisions of the World War II-era Lend-Lease Act, the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) sold 70 RSD-1 diesel locomotives to the Soviet Union.  These 1000-horsepower six-axle road switchers were classified Da (Diesel,  ALCO), which is coincidentally Russian for "yes," and started their careers switching cars at the ports of Murmansk and Arkhangel.  A couple of Da-class diesels helped take Stalin's train to the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, for which they had to be regauged from 1520mm to 1435mm.  The Da-class diesels beat the Baldwin-built Db-class diesels to become the basis for Soviet diesel development, and were copied by the Kharkov locomotive works as TE1 (Diesel-electric, type 1).  The Da-class diesels were retired in the 1980s when more powerful locomotives took over, and several are preserved such as Da20-09 (October Railway Museum, St Petersburg, Russia).