Last wartime USATC S160 steam locomotive driver dies aged 92

THE last man to drive a United States Army Transportation Corps (USATC) 2-8-0 locomotive in a war situation has died aged 92.

Les Jacoby, who was born in Wabasha, Minnesota, and the oldest of 11 children, lived on a farm which had no electricity or running water.

He joined the US Army in 1946, and lost much of his hearing during basic training. He struggled with the loss for the rest of his life.

Career

He served his country as an adviser to the Korean National Railroad and subsequently with the 790th Transportation Railway Operating Battalion, where aged 19 he became the driver of the last USATC steam locomotive to be used in conflict, United States Army No. 101 General Pershing.

The locomotive, the only surviving example of 150 Consolidation-type locomotives built by Baldwin in 1918 for the US Army, was shipped to Korea in 1947 and served in the Korean War.

During the 1930s, the USATC approved an updated design to create the S159 class, which was further developed into the S160s during World War Two to create a volume of locomotive power for the wrecked railways of Europe.

In Korea, where it served with 100 S160s shipped from Europe, the locomotive was damaged by arms fire but was rebuilt in 1953 and returned to service.

It ended its operating day as shunter in Seoul and was then donated to the National Railroad Museum at Green Bay, Wisconsin, by the Republic of Korea in 1959.

After entering college at the College of St Thomas in S. Paul, Les was recalled into army service in 1950 to learn to operate the EMD SW8 electric diesel locomotives. He also taught other soldiers at Oakland Army Base how to run the diesels they were taking to Korea. Two of the 41 SW8s his unit took there now reside at the South Carolina Railroad Museum in Winnsboro.

Communications

After that, he helped establish the teletype communications complex for 3rd TMRS (Transportation Military Railroad Service) Advance Headquarters then being established in newly recaptured Seoul. He served in the Korean War until 1951.

Upon his return to the USA in 1951, Les completed his degree in English and history and met his future wife, Beverly Jones. After graduating, Les worked in insurance and finance, and married Beverly in 1957 in her home town of Amery, Wisconsin. They settled in suburban Minneapolis and had one daughter, Jeanne. When Les retired, they moved to Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1983. He lost his wife in 1993 and moved to Columbia, South Carolina, to be closer to his daughter and her four children.

He was interred with his wife at the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio on November 10.

Eight S160s were brought to the UK for preservation and restoration, and as reported last issue, the Churnet Valley Railway now has three.