When the Laurinburg & Southern (Laurinburg, N.C.) operated a network of shortlines around North Carolina and also had switching contracts with a number of industries, the company kept a 25 tonner at their shops in Laurinburg as an emergency reserve. Their CEO explained to me that if there was an engine failure at one of their locations, the quickest short-term fix -- to keep customers happy -- was to truck the 25 tonner to the site.

To move an engine to one of their other sites by rail -- even if it was less than 200 miles away, would typically take 4-6 days, as it frequently involved multiple interchanges with CSX and NS. Moving the 25 tonner by road did require a special heavy load permit from the state, but those could usually get approved in less than a day. It was fairly simple to winch the small loco on and off a rail-equipped flatbed trailer.

Yes, the 25 tonner could only handle a few cars, but it kept the customers happy by moving cars as needed.

It's been years since I've been to Laurinburg or any of the other shortlines that they operated. All are now under new management and ownership -- and I don't know what happened to the 25 tonner.

-- Ernest