LR&W #102 at Merrillan

The Little Rock & Western Railway is an 80-mile Arkansas short line which began operations on ex-Rock Island RR tracks in 1980.  One of the largest customers on the LR&W is a Green Bay Packaging plant, so the railroad had ties to Wisconsin from the very start.

The GB&W was using Alco ex-Erie Western #207 on local trains during the late 1970s; when the LR&W began operations that Alco C-420 was repainted and became Little Rock & Western's first engine,  #101 in early 1983.

Later that spring another Alco C-420 appeared in Norwood shops -- this time it was ex- L&N #1306, destined to be LR&W #102.  While this engine was laid up in Norwood, GB&W leased #305 to the Arkansas line.   After the shop forces completed their work on the loco it was road tested on GB&W's westbound train No. 1 (and returned east on No. 2) before it was sent to the LR&W's home rails.

The paint scheme is clearly GB&W-inspired: the block lettering on the long hood, the rectangular herald on the cab side, the checkerboard stripes on the frame.  The GBW shop crews has a good reputation for their work: Besides the two Little Rock & Western engines, they also rehabbed an Alco for the LR&W's other's large customer, Continental Grain.