ALCO MRS - 1 The ALCO MRS - 1 is a type of diesel - electric locomotive built by the American Locomotive Company ( ALCO ) for the United States Army Transportation Corps ( USATC ) . They were built with multigauge trucks and to a reduced loading gauge for service anywhere in the world in the event of war . History . Development . The Korean War and the intensification of the Cold War at the beginning of the 1950s caused the USATC to consider what it might need for a new land war in Europe . They came up with a requirement for a locomotive capable of running on the existing tracks of a wide variety of railway systems . Key parts of the specification included adjustable - gauge trucks , compact bodywork to fit restrictive loading gauge s , and replaceable coupler s to fit a variety of systems . The trucks accepted wheelsets between standard gauge and , which encompasses the vast majority of the broad gauge s in use worldwide , including those of the then Soviet Union ( ) and the Iberian peninsula ( } ) . The specification was put out to tender , and two companies responded ; GM and GE . Both companies were contracted produced a batch of thirteen locomotives which would be evaluated by the USATC ; the vendor providing the better locomotive would then produce the rest of the required locomotives . Both manufacturers delivered their sample batch in 1952 , and after testing the GE locomotives , which were actually produced by Alco as a subcontractor , were declared the winner , and a further batch of 70 ALCO MRS - 1 locomotives were ordered . As delivered , they were painted in gloss black with white numbering and lettering . Fifty had steam generators . The locomotives were numbered by the Army from 2041 - 2123 . Military service . The initial fate of most of the MRS - 1 locomotives was to be placed in storage at the USATC ' s Transportation Materiel Command facility at Marietta , Pennsylvania awaiting a war to use them in ; they had not been purchased for peacetime use . These brand - new locomotives , with at most a couple of weeks ' actual use , sat preserved until approximately 1970 , when the Pentagon concluded that their plans for a future , large - scale land war no longer included the capture and use of the enemy ' s railway system . Thus the 96 locomotives were redundant for their original purpose . Many of the units were taken out of storage and assigned to various military installations around the country , where locomotives of that size and power were required . The Army eventually decided to transfer the units to the United States Navy . Five units stationed in Concord , California were the last to be used by the armed forces . Post - military careers . Thirteen of the locomotives were sold to the Alaska Railroad — six in 1974 , and seven in 1975 . Alaska retired its last ALCO MRS - 1s in 1984 . Two locomotives were sold to the Administración de Ferrocarriles del Estado . They suffered a fire in 1994 , and one was scrapped , while the other is stored inoperable . While many locomotives were ultimately scrapped , several still exist , in various states of preservation . Examples exist at the Bluegrass Railroad and Museum , the Western Railway Museum , the Museum of Transportation , the Northern Pacific Railway Museum , the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum , the Western Pacific Railroad Museum ( one MRS - 1 from Portola Railroad Museum was transferred to Yreka Western Railroad where it operates now as YWRR # 244 ) , the California State Railroad Museum , and Railtown 1897 . In addition , the Eastern Shore Railroad ( now Bay Coast Railroad ) stores two for possible future use . Cass Scenic Railroad also stored 2 examples , which were sold as surplus and later scrapped in 2010 . Spotting features . Being produced to the same specification , both GE / ALCO and EMD MRS - 1s are very similar in appearance and can easily be mistaken ; they are both C - C road - switcher s that are very low in profile in order to fit within European loading gauges . The major exterior differences are the peaked cab roof and long hood roof on the EMD locomotives , and the radiator intakes on the sides of the long hood end , which have outside shutters on the Alco locomotives . In addition , the short hood is visibly lower than the long hood , thanks to the long hood ' s peaked roof ; on the ALCO units , the two are the same height . The frame side sills are also different ; the Alco ' s are straight from front to rear , while the EMD ' s step down towards each end of the locomotive .