United States Air Force Locomotive #1246 is one of three locomotives on the US National Register on display at the Fort Smith Trolley Museum.
It is free to wander the Trolley Museum grounds, but donations are always appreciated. There is a nominal fare to ride the trolley around downtown.
The National Register nomination form for this locomotive can be found at the AR Preservation Society website: (
visit link)
"STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
United States Air Force Locomotive #1246 is a diesel-powered General Electric 44-ton center-cab switch locomotive built by General Electric in January 1953. It was operated by the United States Air Force until it was declared surplus federal property c.1990. The locomotive was acquired by the Fort Smith Trolley Museum on October 5, 1992, and is on display among other pieces of rolling stock on a spur off of the original Frisco rail line through Fort Smith."
More history of this unique locomotive which served the USAF for almost 40 years can be found on the nomination form (heavily edited by BMB for length and relevance):
"From the 1830s onward, steam locomotives were the standard workhorses on American railroads. . . . By the late nineteenth century, as trains became longer and heavier and the increased demand for railroad traffic brought about faster and tighter schedules, American steam locomotives became much larger and more sophisticated. . . . [but] there was still a need for smaller steam locomotives designed specifically for switching duties in yards. Switchers were usually built to conventional designs, but were relatively small, operated at slow speeds, and had high adhesion in order to move long strings of railroad cars. . . .
. . . .
. . . [By] the 1930s and early 1940s many railroads began to upgrade their motive power by purchasing diesel locomotives . . . . since they presented several advantages over steam locomotives . . . .
In the United States, General Electric began experimenting with diesel-electric motive power in the early 1910s and had produced five experimental diesel-electric switch engines early during World War I. However, . . . the development of a lightweight diesel engine capable of producing lots of horsepower did not occur however, until the 1930s.
In 1930, General Motors, which mainly manufactured automobiles, acquired the Winton Engine Company, a company that specialized in lightweight diesel engines, and the Electro-Motive
Corporation, which had been created in 1922 to design and market gas-electric railcars. The merger of these three companies signified the beginning of the era of lightweight streamlined passenger trains, such as the Burlington and Quincy Railroad's Pioneer Zephyr, and the beginning of serious use of diesel-electric motive power for passenger trains
. . . GE had produced its own line of switchers and, in fact, it was GE's original diesel locomotive market. In 1940, GE introduced new standard models of switch engines, including a 44-ton center-cab model . . . which became one of the most popular GE models. . .
Production of GE's 44-ton switchers began in January 1940. . . The GE 44-ton switcher was popular with a wide variety of railroads for many purposes. . . .
Among the industrial customers who purchased the GE 44-ton switcher was the U.S. military, including the Army, Air Force and Navy. . . . The U.S. Air Force was the last military branch to acquire GE 44-ton switchers, acquiring their first ones in January 1953, and acquiring a total of 11 units in January and February 1953. Locomotive #1246 was built
in January 1953 and was GE construction #31870. (It was Air Force order #DA-36-022-TC-6233.) It was one of two 44-ton locomotives ordered by the Air Force in January 1953. . .
Although it is not known for sure where Locomotive #1246 was initially stationed, it is believed that it went to Grissom Air Force Base outside of Bunker Hill, Indiana, in 1954. . .
From the mid 1950s until October 1994 when the base was realigned as an Air Force Reserve Command facility, Grissom was home to several kinds of aircraft including B-47 bombers, B-58 "Hustler" bombers, KC 135 Stratotankers, and A-10 Thunderbolt II fighters.2 1 However, even though aircraft were the essence of the base, a switch engine such as Locomotive #1246 would have been important to bring goods and supplies to the base and take them from one part of the base to another.
The 1992 Onward topographic map indicates that Grissom Air Force Base had approximately 1-2 miles of track on the base at the northern end, which connected to the Pennsylvania Railroad (later Conrail) line that ran in a northwest/southeasterly direction along the northern edge of the base. (The Pennsylvania Railroad line along with all of the track within Grissom Air Force Base has since been removed.) Railroad cars with supplies would have been delivered to the edge of the base by the Pennsylvania Railroad or Conrail, and then Locomotive #1246 would have switched the cars from the base's edge to the various buildings on base.
A design such as a 44-ton switcher would have been ideal for the switching duties at the base. The tight curves of the track on base and the narrow spaces in between the buildings, along with the relatively few numbers of railroad cars that would have been needed to service the base, would have been ideal for a small locomotive like #1246.
Although the exact date is not known, by 1992 Locomotive #1246 had been declared surplus property by the U.S. government. It was acquired by the City of Fayetteville, Arkansas, and was scheduled to be taken to Fayetteville. However, before the locomotive arrived Fayetteville's plans had fallen through and the locomotive was left in Fort Smith. (Fayetteville's plans for the locomotive are not known.) On October 5, 1992, the locomotive was acquired by the Fort Smith Trolley Museum, and it has since been placed on display on their grounds.
Today, United States Air Force Locomotive #1246 is a living reminder of Arkansas's rich railroad history. United States Air Force Locomotive #1246 is an excellent example of a General Electric 44-ton diesel-electric switch locomotive in Arkansas. The survival and continued preservation of Locomotive #1246 is a monument to the dedication of the Fort Smith Trolley Museum."