ALCO MRS-1 diesel loco - US Army 2069 - real world MOC of a engine from my local railroad museum

[Murdoch17]

In the early 1950's the United States Army Transportation Corps (USATC) was considering what would happen to an enemy railroad if another European war broke out. If the native locomotives in said enemy country were destroyed or rendered inoperable (as they likely would have been) what would pull the US military trains on their soil? The answer was not easy, as many countries have different gauges, loading clearances, brake types, and couplers. The USATC decided on specific set of guidelines for it's Military Road Switcher (MRS) and waited to see which companies would offer the best design. American Locomotive Company (ALCO) beat out Electro-Motive Division (EMD), and won the contact. ALCO produced 83 locomotives, which sat unused until ~1970 when the Pentagon decided their plans no longer required the capture and use of an enemy railway network. These 96 locomotives (including the 13 EMD prototype ones) were either sold, sent off to various Army or Navy installations, while many were scrapped. One of the ones not scrapped is US Army 2069, which was acquired from the US military surplus program in 1993 by the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri where it remains operational to this day, periodically shuffling historic items around the grounds.

The LEGO model of the 2069 started life as @SavaTheAggie's much larger 8-wide version of the MRS-1 type built in the color scheme of the Texas State Railroad. I modified the hell out of it since purchasing instructions in 2014 - among other things, I changed the colors to black with yellow railings and slightly shortened the frame and long hood. The model was slimmed down from 8-wide to 6 for the frame and 7-wide for the cab, while the hoods remain 5-wide as on the original MOC. You can buy instructions for Sava's original model here at Brick Train Depot.

The middle axle of each of the locomotive's bogies slides to-and-fro for traversing switches and curves. Here we see the long hood of the engine.

The real world US Army 2069 locomotive from the Museum of Transportation, as seen late last year. (It appears the loco bumped into something a some point, as I don't think the plow is supposed to look like that!)

Thoughts?

[Shiva]

Nice :)

I would sort of say you rebuilt it totally, vs modifying.

[LL1982]

Stricking colours! Looks good. Nice job also getting 2x 3 axles in.

[Murdoch17]

11 hours ago, Shiva said:

Nice :)

I would sort of say you rebuilt it totally, vs modifying.

Thanks @Shiva! I'll just say it was "inspired by" the original builder's moc, then.

2 hours ago, LL1982 said:

Stricking colours! Looks good. Nice job also getting 2x 3 axles in.

Thanks @LL1982!

[bogieman]

Very nice work on the ALCO version.

I have a copy of the operator's manual for the EMD version of the MRS-1, given to me by a co-worker at EMD who designed the multi-gauge bogie braking system for it. There was an EMD one, #1813, at the Transportation Test Center in Pueblo, CO when I did radial bogie testing there.

[idlemarvel]

Very nice, and well done with the Co-Co wheel arrangement. Is it powered or display? I wonder if you could tone down the striking yellow by using bars and clips rather than the trail handrail pieces?

[Feuer Zug]

Good rendition of the ALCo MRS-1 class shunters.

[Murdoch17]

3 hours ago, bogieman said:

Very nice work on the ALCO version.

I have a copy of the operator's manual for the EMD version of the MRS-1, given to me by a co-worker at EMD who designed the multi-gauge bogie braking system for it. There was an EMD one, #1813, at the Transportation Test Center in Pueblo, CO when I did radial bogie testing there.

Thanks, @bogieman and very cool you got to do that! I'm jealous of you getting a instruction manual too. Also, I guess that's why you're called bogieman? I thought you just really liked KC and the Sunshine Band or something! 

1 hour ago, idlemarvel said:

Very nice, and well done with the Co-Co wheel arrangement. Is it powered or display? I wonder if you could tone down the striking yellow by using bars and clips rather than the trail handrail pieces?

Thanks @idlemarvel, and it's display only. I generally don't power any of my stuff. Also, I used the handrail parts as I had an abundance of them... I also hate having fiddley bits on my trains (such as handrails) as I hated how the BNSF I got for Christmas 2005 did their handrails back. I swore back then I would never have something not firmly attached to any of my future MOCs.

55 minutes ago, Feuer Zug said:

Good rendition of the ALCo MRS-1 class shunters.

Thank you @Feuer Zug!

Edited Monday at 07:06 PM by Murdoch17