RailroadForums.com Photo Gallery - NWSC Crane Alco MRS-1

This engine is far from home, Naval Weapons Support Center American Locomotive Company MRS-1 #9 from Crane, Indiana. According to Wikipedia, the MRS-1s have a very interesting history. Following the Korean war they were designed by the United States Army Transportation Corps (USATC) to be an extremely versatile unit, capable of operating on different gauges (1,435 mm-1,676 mm), with different couplers etc., in order to facilitate operation on railways all over the world during war. Hence the tiny body, just compare to the TTX high-cube behind him, never mind an autorack… GM & GE bid on the contract, building 13 units each, GE got the bid, sub-contracting construction to ALCO who made a further 70 copies. Don’t feel bad for GM however, as they developed this beast further into the successful G8/G12 series, producing thousands of them for railroads all over the world: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Cuba, Egypt, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Liberia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, United States & Venezuela. This engine sure gets around! Can you say they look near identical to a CN G8? http://tinyurl.com/kmjn4m Sadly all 96 MRS-1s were stored at the Transportation Materiel Command facility (why the French spelling?) in Marietta, Pennsylvania until 1970, what a waist! At this point they were re-assigned to various military basis as switching locomotives, working alongside Baldwins (http://tinyurl.com/nmwbac), before being replaced by Geeps and now Green Goats (Photos coming). Today two such engines, former NWSC Crane #7 & #9, nee B-2057 & B-2094? originally (old number boards) work for Liberty Railway Services, a railcar repair shop located in the middle of the desert near Pueblo, Colorado. A nice two hour hike from the AMTRAK station. They’ve been stationed here for at least a decade, a GE 44T & SW1200 type units are on sight as well.