Eastern Railroad Discussion > Decades-old switcher based at Alabama mill

While visiting relatives at Pinckard, Ala., this past weekend, I spotted a decades-old diesel-powered switch engine assigned to a grain mill just north of town. Thought some of the TO members might know the full history on this old workhorse of an engine, which apparently is owned by a Georgia company. The manufacturer's plate was missing from the engine.

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Two more pictures from Pinckard, Ala., which is just a few miles from Dothan. The industrial spur leading to the grain mill is served by the CSX.

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That's some heavily modified Alco! I would guess with the Blunt trucks that it started out as an S-1 or S-2, and now has a different prime mover. Looks like even those trucks are heavily modified to accept roller bearings. - - - - JLH

It's an Alco S-2 that has been re-engined with a truck engine. Fairly common thing for industry owned units.
They can be shut down and restarted much easier then a normal Alco 539 engine.
And they use much less fuel too!

PHall Wrote:
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> It's an Alco S-2 that has been re-engined with a
> truck engine. Fairly common thing for industry
> owned units.
> They can be shut down and restarted much easier
> then a normal Alco 539 engine.
> And they use much less fuel too!

Thanks for the info.

The engine is part of Gold Kist cooperative, which is a farmer owned agricultural company. It's the second largest producer of chickens in the US.

The company operates a series of grain mills in the southeast to service their chicken business. The company has a small fleet of older rebuilt switchers, and I believe it also owns a few track mobiles, etc. Pinckard is a relatively new mill.