SOUTHERN #9838

Builder: Southeastern Specialties
Build Date: 1977
Type: RPA4U Slug
Status: In storage

Perhaps the most unusual locomotive in the Monticello Railway Museum’s collection is Southern No. 9838, an RPA4U type “Slug,” built in 1977 out of an RS3 diesel locomotive dating to the 1950s.

The Southern Railway rebuilt a number of their older RS3 locomotives into these unusual Slugs throughout the 1970s. The number of the RS3 that No. 9838 was built out of is unknown, but it still has some of its original RS3 features today.

Slug locomotives are unmanned and have no controls, but can be hooked up to a manned locomotive with controls. A single operator can control both units from the cab of the traditional locomotive with controls. Slugs were designed for low speed operations in railyards. Once hooked up to a normal locomotive, they take excess electrical current from the normal locomotive and use it to power their own motors for extra pulling and braking power, making them ideal for switching.

The 9838 was acquired by the museum in 1991 from the Norfolk Southern Railway (successor to the Southern) with the intent of using it as a parts source for other locomotives in the collection. Today, this unusual piece of equipment is typically stored on the east side of the museum’s Camp Creek Yard.