Steam Saturday: CB&Q 1548 in Cuyahoga Falls

This image was inside a slide box that I purchased at a thrift shop. Former Chicago, Burlington & Quincy No. 1548 is on display at Mack Lowry’s Railways of America in Cuyahoga Falls in September 1965.

The 0-6-0 locomotive was built by Baldwin in December 1912 as a G-3 class steamer.

It was sold in January 1942 to Midland Electric Coal Company of Middle Grove, Illinois. Later it was sold to Galva Iron & Metals of Galva, Illinois.

Lowry acquired the locomotive in 1961 and moved it to Cuyahoga Falls. Today it sits near Quaker Square in Akron where it continues to deteriorate.

Collection of Robert Farkas

W.Va. Steam Locomotive to Get New Boiler

Restoration is set to begin on former Buffalo Creek & Gauley 2-8-0 No. 4.

West Virginia tourist railroad Durbin & Greenbrier Valley said it will hire Sisterville Tank Works to build a new boiler for the locomotive.

Once the work is completed No. 4 will run between Cass and Durbin, West Virginia.

The cost of the project has been put at $675,000 with $135,000 already having been raised.

The contractor selected for the work was involved in building a boiler for Cass Scene Railroad’s Heisler No. 6 in the early 2000s.

No. 4 was built by Baldwin in 1926 for the National Railway of Mexico but never delivered.

It last operated for the BC&G in 1965 before going on to operate for tourist railroads in Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The locomotive has been out of service since 2001 by which time it was owned by the North Carolina Transportation Museum. DGVR acquired No. 4 in 2015.

Steamer to Operate at Indiana Museum

A 0-4-4T steam locomotive will operate on the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum in North Judson, Indiana.

Bock Lumber Company No. 1 was built in 1908 by Baldwin Locomotive Works, is the only operating example of a standard gauge Forney-type in North America.

The steamer is not expected to pull passenger excursions this year although it is expected to arrive at the museum this fall.

Museum officials said they needed time to become acquainted with steam operations.

No. 1 is owned by Fred Haberkamp who spent six years restoring it to operating condition.

He was assisted in the restoration effort by David Kloke of Kloke Locomotive Works.

Kloke created the operating replicas of the Central Pacific Leviathan and Northern Central York locomotives.

In the restoration process, No. 1 was converted from wood burning to oil burning.

The Forney design has two powered leading axles followed by two unpowered axles in a trailing truck that supports the weight of the water tank and fuel bunker.

They are able to operate cab forward, but can be operated boiler-first.

No. 1 spent its working years in Florida and was saved by a Michigan car collector, Barney Pollard, in 1965.

It later wound up in a scrap yard before being acquired by George Thaggard and moved to California.

After being stored there for a few decades prior, the locomotive was sold to Haberkamp.

Volunteers Restore Michigan Narrow Gauge Steamer

Volunteers in Michigan have cosmetically restored a 2-8-0 Baldwin narrow gauge steam locomotive.

No. 6 of the Quincy & Torch Lake Railroad ran on a six-mile line hauling copper from the underground mine to a processing mill.

The railroad closed in 1945 and its locomotives were locked inside a roundhouse where they sat for several years until the formation of the Quincy Mine Hoist Association to preserve and interpret the history of copper mining in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

No. 6, which was built in 1912, was only new locomotive purchased by the railroad and was the largest and heaviest in the fleet.

The restoration began after No. 6 returned to Michigan in 2009 following a stint in New Jersey where an expected restoration failed to occur.

Chuck Pomazal, a model builder from Illinois, led a group of volunteers who restored No. 6, largely with hand tools.

The locomotive was placed on public display on Aug. 25. The volunteers are now turning their efforts to restoring  Q&TL No. 5, a smaller 2-6-0.

2-8-2 Headed for Age of Steam Roundhouse

Another steam locomotive is en route to the Age of Steam Roundhouse in Sugarcreek.

Yreka Western 2-8-2 No. 19 was loaded onto a flatcar this week and left Yreka, California.

AOS owner Jerry Joe Jacobson bought No. 19 for $400,000 last October at a sheriff’s auction after a boiler company placed a lien on it for nonpayment of work done in 2006.

The steamer was built in 1915 by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1915 and has worked for an an Arkansas logging railroad and California’s McCloud River Railroad. It appeared in the 1973 movie Emperor of the North.

No. 19 is the second ex-McCloud locomotive to be owned by AOS, including 2-6-2 No. 9.

Last Runs for Orange Blossom Cannonball

Making a back-up move in Tavares, Florida.

While vacationing in Florida I caught one of the last trips of the Tavares Eustis & Gulf steam train, the Orange Blossom Cannonball.

TE&G No. 2, a Baldwin 2-6-0 built in 1907, powered these final trips the weekend of Jan. 27-28 2017.

This scenic railway used the tracks of the Florida Central short line. It started operation in 2011 and an increase in trackage rights fees caused it to shut down this month.

The equipment has been used in movies such as True Grit, Appaloosa, and 3:10 to Yuma, among others. It is owned by the Reader Railroad of Arkansas and will be returned there.

I was fortunate to be vacationing for these last trips.

Article and Photographs by Todd Dillon

Aug. 25 Eyed for Steam to Return to Steamtown

A Baldwin-built 0-6-0 steam locomotive is expected to begin operating at Steamtown National Historic Site by Aug. 25.

Once No. 26 is fully operational it will pull the park’s yard shuttles.

The date that service is expected to begin will coincide with the 99th anniversary of the founding of the National Park Service.

No. 26 will be the first steam locomotive to operate at Steamtown since 2012.

The rebuilt locomotive passed a full-scale pressure test last December and Federal Railroad Administration inspectors allowed Steamtown to operate the Baldwin after another trial in the spring.

The locomotive, which will have a green livery, still must complete shakedown runs in the Steamtown yard.

Supervising exhibit specialist Barbara Klobucar said Steamtown discovered that olive drab green was the locomotive’s original color.

No. 26 was built by Baldwin in 1929 and used as a switcher at Baldwin’s Eddystone Plant until it was sold in 1948 to Jackson Iron & Steel of Jackson, Ohio.

There it switched cars at the plant and to interchanges with the Baltimore & Ohio and the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton railroads.

Sold in 1979 to a private owner, it remained in Jackson until June 1983, when it moved to Grand Rapids, Ohio.

Then it transferred to the Mad River & NKP Museum in Bellevue where it sat until 1986 when it was acquired by the former Steamtown Foundation in trade for Canadian National 4-6-0 No. 1551. It arrived in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the home of Steamtown, in January 1990.

“All of the railfans are just champing at the bit,” Dawn Mach, Steamtown assistant superintendent, said of the long-awaited return of the engine to service. “People are excited, especially since we are starting to wrap up the work.”

Hocking Valley Close to Operating Steamer No. 3

The Hocking Valley Scenic Railway in southern Ohio is working to have an 0-6-0 steam locomotive in operation by the end of summer.

The 12-year-restoration effort of former Ohio Power Company No. 3 reached a milestone on May 9 when the locomotive was steamed up and tested.

Last Saturday visitors to the railroad located near Nelsonville saw No. 3 moving around the yard under steam.

No. 3 was built by Baldwin in 1920 for Beech Bottom Power Company as No. 13. It was used in Power, West Virginia, to transfer coal from mines to a power plant in northwestern West Virginia.

No. 3 was sold to Ohio Power Company and had been dormant for several decades before arriving on the Hocking Valley in 1982.

Restoration work began about 2001 with volunteers from Ohio, West Virginia and elsewhere coming together the first Saturday of each month to work on the engine.

Once the No. 3 enter service, it will become the only regularly operating standard gauge steam locomotive in Ohio.

For more information on the project, visit the Hocking Valley Scenic Railway Steam Locomotive No. 3 Restoration Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/hvsr3 or go to http://www.hvsry.org.