By Eric Berger

Two decades after the restoration of Ann Arbor RS-1 20 to the Wabash passenger paint scheme it wore in its first decade the paint was fading and rust was taking a toll. But the Alco is resplendent in fresh paint once again, thanks to the Shepherd Railroad Museum Association Depot Committee and its supporters. The engine was repainted in May by Pennsylvania-based equipment painter Jeff Conner.

Ann Arbor parent company Wabash ordered two RS-1s equipped with steam generators to take over passenger service on its cross-Michigan subsidiary as part of a 1950 order that completed its dieselization, hence the passenger paint. Discontinuance of that passenger service came before the engines arrived, so AA 20 and 21 spent three decades working on locals and odd jobs suited to a 1000 hp unit without multiple unit capabilities.

The Wabash colors endured until 1963, when new AA owner Detroit, Toledo & Ironton applied its spartan orange dip to the AA fleet. The orange paint remained through retirement around 1983 and its subsequent display in Shepherd by the Southern Michigan Railroad Historical Society. The orange paint would disappear under a restored Wabash scheme for the first time in 2004, also thanks to the efforts of local volunteers.

At the other end of Shepherd’s exhibit “train” led by AA 20 is Ann Arbor caboose 2845, which Connor repainted in 2022.  Between them are a baggage car and DT&I boxcar.

The 1950 Alco order that ended steam operations also included 14 FA-2 road units and four S-3 switchers, but the only known surviving unit is the other RS-1, which is also owned by the Southern Michigan Railroad Historical Society. That unit is reportedly operational and undergoing slow restoration into Wabash colors on a stretch of isolated track near Lenawee Junction.

The only other surviving AA Alco is the former AA 10, a 1952 S-3 originally built as Manistique & Lake Superior 1 and preserved as Green Bay & Western 103 at the National Railway Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin.