Locomotive 916 (General Electric 41850 of 1979) is a rather interesting locomotive,
with an interesting history.
In my early years of researching Philippine diesel locomotives I was with the mystery of where 916 came from. In official GE listings (which many local fans chose to ignore), there was no 916 delivered to the Philippines. Everything suggested that units delivered were numbered 901-915 and 917-922.
The gap in the numbers also was quite the mystery.
The mystery 916 begun life as the first 908, but during the course of operations it was involved in an incident that involved the killing of the son of an officer (I was told of military background).
Obviously being a bit deranged, the officer started to blame the locomotive (not uncommon there when peoples family are killed due to their illegally trespassing) and would routinely throw things at it whenever it passed.
This eventually escalated up to the use of a grenade, which meant something had to be done. This something would lead to the renumbering of 908 as 916.
With the second series of U15C locomotives being delivered after this renumbering, we are also given the reasoning for the 916 delivery gap. It would be safe to bet that the last delivery would have otherwise been 916-921.
Before moving on to some photos, it may be worth noting that U15C 904 was later renumbered 908. Presumably the officer was no longer a threat, however I have not yet found out why this numbering took place.
916 graced the third version of our 'Philippine National Railways: Fleet Update' which is compiled occasionally for the benefit of PRHS members.
They are free for download here.
