Steam Saturday: Lesser Known Iteration of the 4070 Tender

Over the years former Grand Trunk Western No. 4070 carried many heralds and letterings on its tender. That was particularly the case when it worked on the Cuyahoga Valley Line, now the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s.

It has carried heralds and lettering for the CVL and during its time when it was filmed for the movie The Natural, it even carried a Burlington Route herald.

In the image above, it carries lettering for the Midwest Railway Historical Foundation. This might be the least remembered of the tender’s many identities.

That is the name of its owners at the time, an organization based in Cleveland that has since renamed itself the Midwest Railway Preservation Society.

The 2-8-2 light Mikado is shown working in Peninsula in September 1982.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Steam Saturday: 4070 From the Route 82 Bridge

The steam division of the wayback machine has us on the Ohio Route 82 bridge in Brecksville.

The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad was then known as the Cuyahoga Valley Line and the motive power was former Grand Trunk Western 2-8-2 light Mikado No. 4070 operated by the Midwest Railway Preservation Society.

At the time this image was made the bridge had sidewalks on both sides.

The top image was made on the north side of the bridge of the southbound train. The bottom image was, of course, on the other side showing it going away.

It was made before the site has been transformed into a parking lot with a station although back in the day the Baltimore & Ohio had a depot here.

The bridge over the Cuyahoga River was on Station Road. The bridge is still in place and now part a trail leading from the Towpath Trail to the station.

Photographs by Robert Farkas

American Flyer

Cuyahoga Valley Line No. 4070 is southbound near Akron in the summer of 1982, wearing a sign reading “The American Flyer.”I believe there might have been a convention of American Flyer modelers on this trip.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

GTW 4070 has Moved Slightly

Two months ago I presented a report about former Grand Trunk Western 2-8-2 No. 4070, which now lies in a state of disassembly at the former Baltimore & Ohio roundhouse in Cleveland.

The light Mikado is owned by the Midwest Railway Preservation Society and is best known for having pulled trains between 1975 and 1990 on the Cuyahoga Valley Line, now known as the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad.

The engine broke down in September 1990 and hasn’t operated since.

I saw the 4070 at the roundhouse earlier this month while attending a meeting there of the Forest City Division of the Railroad Enthusiasts.

The body of the 4070 had been moved onto the turntable and the tender had been moved into a roundhouse stall.

A MRPS member said restoration work had recently resumed with replacing staybolts.

That is a start, but the 4070 has a long way to go before it can be fired up again, let alone run on the road.

Members of the Akron Railroad Club who attend tonight’s meeting will see the 4070 in better days during Bob Todten’s slide program.

He’ll be showing the 4070 back when it pulled excursion trains in Chicago, when it worked out of Conneaut Lake Park in Pennsylvania and, of course, when it ran on the Cuyahoga Valley Line.

Finally Seeing the 4070 in Person

Former Grand Trunk Western No. 4070 is in a state of disassembly at the Midwest Railway Preservation Society roundhouse.

The tender for the 4070 has been separated from the engine and sits on an adjacent track.

The cab of the 4070 awaits some restoration.

Sometimes you hear and read so much about something that you think you’ve experienced it when you actually haven’t.

Such is the case with me and former Grand Trunk Western 2-8-2 No. 4070.

I’ve seen numerous photographs and videos of the light Mikado, which is best known in Northeast Ohio for having operated on the Cuyahoga Valley Line (now known as the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad) between 1975 and 1990.

It has figured prominently in many stories I’ve heard told by railfans. Some members of the Akron Railroad Club worked aboard the 4070 during its CVL days.

But I had never seen the 4070 in the flesh until last Friday.

Since breaking down in September 1990, the 4070 has been at the former Baltimore & Ohio roundhouse in Cleveland that is the home of the locomotive’s owner, the Midwest Railway Preservation Society.

MRPS has been working toward restoring the 4070 to operating condition, but it has been a long, slow slog that is far from complete. Lack of money has been a primary culprit.

Although the MRPS holds regular open houses at its roundhouse during the summer, I’d never been there, only driven past it once on a city street.

But the Forest City Division of the Railroad Enthusiasts held its May meeting there last Friday and that gave me the opportunity to see something I had heard much about.

The 4070 these days is in a state of disassembly. Its cab is in one location, one set of driver wheels in another place and the the bulk of engine is sitting just beyond the turntable.

I had pictured the 4070 being inside a dark roundhouse stall, but that wasn’t the case.

It doesn’t look much like a steam locomotive except for its boiler and wheels.

No one during the RRE meeting provided a status report on the 4070s’s restoration.

But a thermometer-like graphic on the MRPS website tells the story. The society’s goal is to raise $1.2 million for restoration of the 4070. The graphic shows that $5,545 has been raised.

And what if the society was to meet that goal and finish the restoration work?

Who knows what would be the next step. Perhaps the 4070 could do an encore appearance on the CVSR.

But nothing is certain. So the hulk of the 4070 sits outside, perhaps bits of pieces of restoration being done here and there.

To borrow a line from a song by the roots music group The Steel Wheels, “I’ve got a long ways to go. And a long road behind.”

GTW 4070 in a Seldom Seen Cleveland Location

Here is a former Grand Trunk Western No. 4070 image from a rarely seen location.

It is working on the Cuyahoga Valley Line heading southbound under the Conrail bridge that is a long hike north of Schaaf Road in Independence.

It is 1984, and she and her train have left from Cleveland and are approaching her former boarding site.

Photograph by Robert Farkas