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.

My good friend Ron Findley passed away back in January of this year (read this brief post of his passing). His wife Lourdes gifted me with Ron’s railroad slide collection. His images are stored in vinyl sheets contained in binders; they take up 5-1/2 feet of shelf space! I’ve not had very much time to go through them, but yesterday I leafed through one to get a feel for what he had. Early on I spotted the image below that he had taken while traveling on business and passing though Columbus, Mississippi.

Ron stopped at the Columbus & Greenville Railway facilities late in the evening of February 25, 1988, which was a Thursday. And there he recorded a view that most everyone that has visited the C&G has seen: their first diesel-electric locomotive on display in front of their shop building.

Locomotive #601 is a Baldwin model DRS 6-4-1500. She produces 1500 hp, and is carried on two A-1-A trucks (each with 3 axles, 2 with traction motors). One of five ordered, she was delivered to the C&G on October 8, 1946 and was evaluated for quality and performance. Having earned the confidence of management, they released the order for the other four units. All would be on the property and in operation by January of 1947.

There is an extended write up of these Baldwins on the HawkinsRails website, which I highly recommend (and gained much of this information from).

I’ll be featuring more of Ron’s photos as I find the time to sift through them. Ron and I made quite a few trips together over the years, primarily in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. I lost virtually my entire slide collection in the Great Flood of 2016. I’m hoping to find “duplicates” of the images I had taken in Ron’s collection, as he and I took so many photographs while standing shoulder to shoulder. RIP Ron…

I’ll let the comment accompanying the photograph tell the story.

“The photograph captures a moment of immense power and industry on the Illinois Central Railroad in April of 1950. Southbound train No. 3, the Louisiane, is seen rumbling into Memphis, its journey meticulously timed on the railroad’s schedule. Leading the impressive consist is a massive 4-8-2 steam locomotive, number 2426, a workhorse of the era. What is truly staggering is the train’s makeup on this day; a formidable line of fifteen baggage, express, mail, and refrigerated cars speaks volumes about the vital role railroads played in moving not just people, but the nation’s commerce and communications. This head-end revenue was the financial lifeblood of passenger trains. Only after this long string of freight-on-the-wheel do the five heavyweight passenger coaches and sleepers appear, carrying those destined for New Orleans. The train’s passage past the Navy Yard Compress, a landmark for local cotton processing, perfectly situates the scene within the industrial heart of Memphis, capturing the essence of post-war American railroading in a single, powerful frame.”

Unfortunately the photographer isn’t identified.

Texas & Pacific steamer #712, a 73″ drivered 4-6-2 Pacific appears to be “picking ’em up and laying ’em down” in this photograph taken out on the high iron. As an oil-burner, I’m surprised at the volume of smoke she’s belching out. No, her flues aren’t being sanded . . . the fireman is leaning out of the window giving a wave to the photographer. Perhaps she just crested a grade and hasn’t settled down yet.

A friend long ago showed me this photograph, which really got my interest. So he gave it to me to scan. The image was cut off at both top and bottom, with the smoke plume flattened and the track ending just in front of the pilot. I wanted to make an 8″x10″ print, so using my very limited skills with photo editing, I managed to somewhat round out the top of the smoke, and add more foreground at the bottom (making track was a bit of a challenge). But this allowed me to get the proportions right for the image.

Unfortunately I have no information about the photograph . . . the photographer, location or date. But I’m speculating that the location is either east Texas or perhaps Louisiana. I would guess the time to be in the late 30’s or early 1940. I have also seen photos of this locomotive in New Orleans after it’s 1940 re-build, those dated 1951.

For this first posting in the month of September, I’m featuring a photograph from the 1986 calendar published by the Louisiana State Railroad Museum, it being for their month of September. The caption for the image follows below.

“Trim Ten Wheeler #260 of the Missouri Pacific Lines still carries the reporting marks of subsidiary St.LB&M in this October 1948 photo at DeQuincy, Louisiana. The 1907 Baldwin product is posed by her proud engineer in front of the long since departed enginehouse but still remaining water tower. (Photo from the collection of Harold K. Vollrath)”

Actually, the locomotive is lettered for the Missouri Pacific Lines (barely visible on the tender), and sub-lettered for the St.LB&M, the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway. She was originally lettered for the St.LB&M, then for later acquisitions: the Gulf Coast Lines, and finally the MoPac. This tidy little oil-burner was one of twelve ordered by the St.LB&M from Baldwin between June of 1905 and December of 1907, numbered 251 – 262.

Kansas City Southern EMD F3 units #30A/B were used on the Southern Belle passenger train, running between Kansas City, Missouri and Shreveport, Louisiana. This image was recorded in LaGrange, Illinois during their delivery in November of 1947. It was scanned from a Vanishing Vistas postcard that I have.

In the early days of diesel locomotives, it was common to semi-permanently couple multiple units together with drawbars to achieve a desired total horsepower. As I understand, at this point in time union rules required a crew on each individual locomotive. This drawbar arrangement allowed multiple locomotives to count as one unit, thus allowing the use of a single crew. This locomotive (consist) was numbered 30. To identify the individual units within the consist, a suffix of A or B (or C, etc. as needed) was added to the number on each unit. In the case of this consist, we have 30A (the lead unit) and 30B.

Note the black paint extending up onto the roof at the rear of the second unit. This was done in an effort to “blend” the arrangement of paint colors on the locomotives to the arrangement of the colors on the passenger cars. Below is a post card showing the result.

At some point the union rules were changed and the units were separated and had the drawbar replaced with conventional couplers. This made maintenance and the mixing/matching of units much easier. #30A was eventually renumbered to 4050. And that unit was eventually rebuilt as a slug in 1981.

Photographer Ben Gelman recorded this view of Illinois Central steam locomotive #1536 as she takes on water from a penstock in the yard at Carbondale, Illinois. Look closely and you’ll see the nearby wash stand with its lance and hose used to wash down the locomotives with steamy water. It looks like she has already been to the coal chute as the coal bunker is practically overflowing. She will likely next be parked on the ready track to wait for her next assignment. The exact date is unknown, but I believe this to be in early 1959 toward the end of steam on the I.C.

I was able to find just a few specs on the #1536: she ran at a boiler pressure of 185 psi which supplied its 27″x30″ cylinders, and she rode on 63″ drivers. She had a tractive effort of 54,158 lbs, and was a product of the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1914. She obviously had been run through the Paducah shops for overhaul as she had the large, squared sand dome atop its boiler.

Mr. Gelman took a series of photos featuring the last days of steam on the Illinois Central in southern Illinois. This image is one of many contained in the Special Collections Research Center of the Southern Illinois University Carbondale.