Arkansas & Missouri
60-Class C420s

During my fall 1988 sabbatical at the University of Arkansas, I became the unofficial photographer for the Arkansas and Missouri Railroad. That was the time that the shop was rebuilding its first C420s. These first photos show that rebuilding from the time of the repainting into the A&M scheme, through retrucking with rebuilt trucks, and the dedication to Chris MacDermot, CMO Delaware & Hudson.

The class engine is first seen fresh from being sand blasted to remove the former paint scheme. Note that all of this work was done outside as shown in this shot on Oct. 21, 1988. It is only appropriate that this former D&H locomotive be named after the D&H CMO Chris McDermot.

A man is working on the rear of the engine in preparation for painting.

The engine is seen later in the day after more preparation work had been done.

The next shot shows the engine 4 days later after the engine was primed, the stripe and lettering covered in preparation for spraying the dark, main color.

The next view was shot Nov. 10, 1988. It shows the lettering complete but the frame and undercarrage are still in primer.

On Nov. 13, 1988 came the trade out of the trucks with some that had been rebuilt. Note the rebuilt truck in front of the engine.

A sling is attached to the front coupler of the locomotive in preparation for the lift and removal of the front truck. The front of the locomotive is then lifted off its front truck. The man in the gray coveralls is CMO, Randy Hannold.

Setting cribbing to support the front end of the locomotive while the old truck is removed from the track.

The body of the front truck is being lifter off the wheel sets.

Now we see the locomotive being lowered onto the rebuilt truck.

We next see the Randy pushing the engine into position to change out the back truck using a fork lift. This same fork lift was used to lift the platform used for spray painting locomotives.

The rear of the locomotive is up in the air so that the rear truck can be removed.

The rear truck is now removed and out of the way.

The fork lift is pushing the rebuilt truck into place.

Randy Hannold is seen driving the fork lift with a wheel set.

The boss is seen here with his men that did the rebuilding of this locomotive.

The subject of the rebuilding is seen on the morning of the dedication Nov. 17, 1988.

Randy Hannold shows the locomotive to Chris McDermot, who sees his name of the side of the cab.

Left to right: Chris McDermot, Randy Hannold, and Tony Hannold just before the dedication.

Chris McDermot is seen inspecting the locomotive with his name on it.

The official portrait of Chris with the locomotive named after him.

This is the photo of the locomotive and all of the crew that worked on it.

For its first trip A&M #60 was the lead locomotive. Chris, Randy, and I joined the crew for the ride south to Chester. Here we see Chris watching the track ahead.

He is then seen studying the BN Track Chart for the Central Division which I provided.

Things were going great until just south of Johnson an Arkola Sand and Gravel readi-mix truck crossed the tracks right in front of us without stopping at the crossing. The engineer put the train into emergency. We missed the truck but the sudden stop caused the diesel engine to die. We see Chris looking into the engine compartment and trying to restart the engine. After a few minutes we were able to continue our trip. In the meantime Randy got on the radio and told the dispatcher to call Arkola and report the incident.