For this first posting in the month of October, I’m featuring a photograph from the 1986 calendar published by the Louisiana State Railroad Museum, it being for their month of October. The caption for the image: “A&LM 4-6-0 #1 with Engineer James W. Smith at the Main Mill Crossing at Huttig, Arkansas, June 1955. Engine retired after last run in May 1958. (Photo from the H. B. Wilson collection.)”. I had posted this photograph just a bit over a year ago, but it’s my favorite image from the aforementioned calendar, so here it is again.

According to the website Mississippi Rails, the Arkansas & Louisiana Missouri Railway has a history going back to 1909. The road was formed initially as the Arkansas, Louisiana & Gulf Railway. In 1915 it was reorganized as the Arkansas & Louisiana Midland Railway. In 1920 it became the Arkansas & Louisiana Missouri Railway, and in 1991 the company was sold and became the Arkansas, Louisiana & Mississippi. It thrives today under the Genesee & Wyoming umbrella.

From the beginning until the late ’40s the company acquired a roster of about 14 steam locomotives. Their initial locomotive was bought new, but all others were acquired in a very used state. The #1 joined the roster in 1946, and the little ten-wheeler became the last to see operation on the road, her last run being in May of 1958. She was a 1920 product of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, built for the Texas-Mexican Railway as their #1 where she served before being sold to the A&LM.