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Back in 1987 and again in 1988, while railfaning around the east side of Toledo, I came across a rare find from the shops of the American Locomotive Company. There was a blue ALCO switcher that operated off Front Street, east of I-280. Here are some photos of this engine in action. Does anyone know who the owner and operator of this switcher was? Also, is this an S-2 or S-4 from ALCO?





A privately owned ALCO switcher works at a factory in Oregon, Ohio. After moving these coal hoppers into position, the engineer pulled up and let me and my friends take some photos of the locomotive. You just don't see that kind of hospitality for railfans these days.

Taken with a Minolta Maxxum 7000, 35-70AF Zoom lens, and Hoya Skylight 1B filter. Film used was Kodak Kodachrome ISO 64. Exposure was 1/125th second @ f16.

Looks like it's switching the docks

It's along the then NS swing bridge just northwest of their Front St. Yard. (You can see the CSX ex-Toledo Terminal bridge in the right of the last photo as well.) As you can see from my photo there earlier this year that spot is now a vacant lot. It's probably the old Koppers plant but I don't know exactly where on Front St. it was.

railohio wrote:It's along the then NS swing bridge just northwest of their Front St. Yard. (You can see the CSX ex-Toledo Terminal bridge in the right of the last photo as well.) As you can see from my photo there earlier this year that spot is now a vacant lot. It's probably the old Koppers plant but I don't know exactly where on Front St. it was.

sweet photo RO

I think that may be an Alco S1 because the radiator shutters are rectangular instead of square. Here's a link to a Delray Connecting S1 http://www.railroadmichigan.com/delray70s01.jpg compared to this photo of a Staten Island S2. http://www.trainsarefun.com/sirt/sirt_s ... keller.jpg

I did do a little googling and the former Koppers Coke plant was located where those those pics were taken.

My father has slides of the same unit as well. Does anybody know what happened to it?

LSRC wrote:My father has slides of the same unit as well. Does anybody know what happened to it?

I shaved with it this am