The fledgling Arizona State Railroad Museum, still working on finalizing zoning approval for its proposed museum site here, has added yet another significant Arizona locomotive to its rolling stock collection: former Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Alco S4 No. 1528. The locomotive arrived Oct. 19 and was scheduled to be offloaded Oct. 23.

The locomotive was built in July 1952 and was one of 38 Alco S4 models on the Santa Fe that were built in five different orders between 1951 and 1953. According to museum officials, the 1528 spent its entire Santa Fe career working in Santa Fe's yards in Phoenix. Retired in December 1974, it was sold to Birmingham Rail & Locomotive of Alabama in April 1975, which resold it to Continental Grain for use at a large feed mill in Gilman, Ill., later taken over by Cargill. The loco was replaced at Gilman in July 2015 by an Alco S2 rebuilt by Chattahoochee Locomotive. Arizona State Railroad Museum purchased the former 1528 in April 2017.

The loco was originally painted in Santa Fe's drab black with silver safety stripes/highlights, and was repainted into the later ATSF blue and yellow scheme at some point in the 1960s. Continental Grain had repainted it into a U.S. Bicentennial paint scheme for the 1976 celebration, but repainted it into drab black after an engine fire around 1978. Bachman produces an N scale model of this locomotive in its original black scheme.

The museum's rolling stock collection, stored on a siding near the shops of the Grand Canyon Railway and at other locations, includes Southern Pacific NW2 No. 1317, built 1941; Black Mesa & Lake Powell E60C electric locomotive No. 6001; a Shay locomotive; a Phoenix Valley Metro light rail prototype car; a narrow-gauge Porter fireless 0-4-0; and several freight cars.

Photo by Al Richmond, courtesy ASRM

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I'm glad to here that this unit is going to a good home. The last time I was at Gilman the locomotive was sitting at the very edge of the feed mill's property near the Gilman Amtrak station, looking a little worse for the wear. I talked to somebody who worked at the mill and he said he hoped that they could find a new home for it someday.

Thomas

Nice. Maybe Old Pueblo Trolley could do some inter-museum activities with them. Wonder if they plan to have any operations at their museum site.

Unloaded today. Note the cast Santa Fe numberplate still intact. Sadly, the horn and bell were stolen, most likely at the Galesburg, Ill. yard.

Cargill officials reported that the loco was apparently last started up within the past six months--or, as they say in "barn find" car ads, "ran whemn last parked!" Although the supply of 539 parts is problematic, ASRM officials may consider an operating restoration in partnership with the Grand Canyon Railway (which uses a Sky Trak "telehandler" as a "shop switcher").

I'm not entirely sure that it would be economical to use this locomotive to move equipment around the shop. When I was working there in 2010/2011, small moves were handled with the Sky Trak, but when the shop needed a major rearrangement, they'd tell the night switcher crew who would then come in and switch out the shop and spot everything in the appropriate places. Doesn't seem like it would be worthwhile to restore this and fire it up for a few hours at most, especially with six other diesel electrics that could be in the shop.

Great photo, by the way! I see conductor Diaz is still plugging away over there.

The best way to preserve a diesel locomotive is to maintain it in operational condition and to run it occasionally. It sounds as if it is already operational, so if the batteries are good, check it over and fire it up. If the batteries are bad it can be jumped.

539 parts are not getting hard to find as of yet. We have one person here on RYPN that has 539 parts for sale, and Silcott still has Alco parts. Occasional operation won't tax the locomotive too greatly so it may be possible to operate the S4 for many years without needing much or anything in the way of parts.

One thing to do is to set up a prelube system for the engine. In our S2 I mounted a pump on the radiator compartment bulkhead on the firemans side, plumbed in to pump oil into the main oil pump discharge line. The suction line goes into the block (some ingenuity required here to route it into the crankcase) where it can pickup oil. The pump I used is driven by a 90 VDC motor which can draw 64 volts directly to the battery. In the cab I have a switch that I throw after the knife switch is closed. Run the pump for a couple of minutes before cranking over. This puts oil everywhere in the engine and avoids those few dry revolutions before the oil pump fills the galleries with oil. An oil filter is also a good thing to add to the system.

To maintain the batteries I have an onboard 72 volt battery charger that is mounted in the electrical cabinet. Runs on 120 VAC. It keeps the batteries charged although I have found that it should not be left on all the time. Just enough to keep the batteries charged.

To maintain water levels in the batteries, especially on an Alco where the levels can't be seen easily, buy a water level indicator from Powerrail. Cost about $8.00 each and is designed to fit in place of the battery cap. Far more reliable than the old mirror and guess method. Powerrail also sells the water treatment that will be needed to prevent corrosion in the cooling water.