ALCOS ON THE ARKANSAS & MISSOURI
This train is bound for glory
BY ROGER A. HOLMES/PHOTOS AS NOTED I
WALKED THROUGH THE YARD OFFICE door marked “For Employees Only” and met Mitch and Chuck who were tonight’s crew on the train to Fort Smith, Ark. In with their paperwork was a signed message from the super- intendent allowing me to ride from Springdale to Fort Smith and return. As they were discussing the various tracks that their train was on, the dif- ferent switch moves that would need to
be made, the mechanical forces were completing the fueling and servicing of the half dozen Alco C420s that would soon be going south out of Springdale. I soon found myself in the cab of Arkansas & Missouri 68 (originally built in 1964 for the Lehigh Valley). Chuck and I talked as Mitch was on the ground lining switches and preparing for the backup moves we’d be making. Chuck said that he had worked for the
Norfolk Southern in Birmingham dur- ing the time of the first NS Steam Pro- gram.
Before long the train was together and the air test was complete and Mitch was back in the cab of the 68. Chuck opened the throttle and we be- gan the trip south, stopping at the yard office briefly on our way out of town. The tracks weaved through industrial areas, urban, country and wooded and
OPPOSITE: Washouts sidelined the regular Monett Turn, but we did find one of the switch jobs with former Belt Railway of Chicago C424 32 and a C420 providing a smoke show in the grand Alco tradition on August 8, 2013. TIM HOLMES TOP: The southbound Fort Smith Turn streaks through West Fork, Arkansas, during the dark and stormy night of August 8, 2013. CAMERON HESTER
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