Countless Alco switchers were rebuilt with Caterpillar or Cummins engines, and sold to small mine operations throughout Appalachia. Most had their cabs removed or sealed shut, and operated by remote control, or from a utilitarian control stand. They were known generically as “bug slugs”, in deference to having a Caterpillar engine.
From what I have been able to piece together, at least two were built for the Kentucky-Ohio Transportation Company of South Shore, Kentucky. They were built by Johnson Railway Services of Taylorsville, North Carolina in 1980. The rebuilt units had a control stand on the steps, as is evidenced by the “phone booth on the former cab end steps. Somehow, this unit ended up in Baltimore, Maryland, by 1985.
