Steam & Excursion > Operation Sky View Fetch, Texas State RR

Some pictures from Earl Knoob, showing the pickup of SLRG 551 Sky View, in Palestine Tx, Friday Nov. 23.

1: UP "Mixed Train" arrives in Palestine at Royall Street interchange.

2: Clearing the last obstructions on the line

3: Flagging across the Palestine Belt

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4: Leaving Royall Street interchange

5: Crossing the Palestine Belt, eastbound

6: Arriving at Palestine

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Why are the railroad crossing lights not working?

ClubCar Wrote:
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> Why are the railroad crossing lights not working?

That crossing hasn't been used in some time - normal TSRR operations never went that far, so it's only used for interchange with the UP (which hasn't happened in a long while). Very well could be rusty rails making poor contact and thus not triggering the circuit.

I don't think that section of track is "officially" in service ie inspected, signals maintained, etc. That was the
connection that Earl has been working to reactivate.

What's the story behind that diesel. A very cool looking machine, (for a diesel)... Is it a Baldwin?

That is an MRS-1, which is the military version of an Alco RS-1, post world war 2. 1000 hp and runs on A-1-A trucks to spread the weight on light trackage.

steam290 Wrote:
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> What's the story behind that diesel. A very cool
> looking machine, (for a diesel)... Is it a
> Baldwin?

TSRR 8 is an Alco MRS-3 built in 1953 for the Army. The railroad acquired it in 1982 from the U.S. Army Ammunition Plant in McAlester, Oklahoma.

Larry W. Grant
(olddude41)
Dallas, Texas

With respect to the prior posters, the model is MRS-1 and it is a very different beast from an RS-1.

The MRS-1 (also designated RSX-4 by GE/Alco {Alco Specification E-1670}) was based on a specification for a multi-gauge locomotive developed by the US Army Transportation Corp. They are C-C truck locomotives with axles that allow variable gauge wheelsets for gauge widths from 4'8-1/2" to 5'6". Their couplers can be easily swapped out for other coupler types and their compact profile is built for very restricted loading gauges.

The spec was released in 1951 and two companies bid on the contract: General Motors-EMD and General Electric. Note, NOT Alco! The Army accepted and both companies were asked to build 13 prototypes. GE subcontracted all the work to Alco, so that's how Schenectady got involved.

The protos were delivered in 1952 and GE was awarded the contact (rumor is that the procurement committee had a few ex-Alco employees on it and they made sure their team looked the best for the Army). 70 more were built, again by Alco, in 1953-1954.

Their story is more involved, but that is the basics.

Their prime movers put out 1600 hp regardless of builder. Alco put in 244D prime movers (RS-1s had 539Ts) and the EMD versions had 16-567Bs. All 96 spent much of their Army lives in storage, but some were used for switching.

TSRR 8 was built as US Army 2101, Alco builder # 80334.

Z

That second shot is interesting with the headlight poking through the downed branches! Also, both of these Ellis-owned operations (Santa Cruz and this one) have their big domes in place about the same time... getting ready for the Santa trains, indeed.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/12 21:21 by IC_2024.