Steam Saturday: Morgan Run Doubleheader

Doubled-headed steam excursions were not rare on the Ohio Central during the Jerry Jacobson era but weren’t necessarily common either.

The two images above were the first and only time that I saw a pair of Ohio Central steam locomotives work in tandem. Both images were made at Morgan Run east of Coshocton on June 8, 2002.

The 1293 and 6325 had teamed up to pull an excursion train from Sugarcreek to Morgan Run. That train had originated in Dennison earlier in the day and run to Sugarcreek behind F7A Nos. 1000 and 1001.

The 4-6-2 No. 1293 was already in Sugarcreek pulling the Baltic tourist train. The 4-8-4 No. 6325 ran light from Morgan Run to Sugarcreek to joins the 1293 once it had completed its Baltic train duties.

I began the day in Sugarcreek photographing the 1293 at work and the arrivals of the excursion train behind the F units and the 6325.

Once the steam locomotives had been teamed up, I chased the train to Morgan Run, getting photographs at Baltic and Fresno. It was the first time I had chased an Ohio Central steam excursion.

The steamers stayed behind at Morgan Run while the F units returned the excursion train to Dennison.

Before then, though, the 1293 and 6325 executed a photo runby for the passengers at Morgan Run, shown in the top image above. The bottom image was made before the runby.

Article and Photographs by Craig Sanders

Tags: Morgan Run, Ohio Central, Ohio Central 1293, Ohio Central No. 1293, Ohio Central steam locomotive No. 1293, Ohio Central steam locomotive No. 6325, Ohio Central steam locomotives