The Everett Railroad in Pennsylvania recently test fired an Alco 2-6-0 that it hopes will be able to pull excursion trains this fall and winter.
The former Bath & Hammondsport No. 11 is one of 59 stock “Cuban” Moguls built between 1920 and 1926 for service in that island nation’s sugar cane fields.
Just 40 of the locomotives were exported to Cuba and the remaining units sat at the factory for years before being acquired for use on U.S. short lines railroads.
Built in 1920, the 55.5-ton No. 11 sat at Alco’s Cooke Works until 1923 when it was sold to the 9-mile long Narragansett Pier Railroad in Rhode Island.
After the Narragansett Pier went to diesel power in 1937, No. 11 went to the Bath & Hammondsport in New York.
That carrier went to diesels in 1949 and No. 11 was stored until being sold in 1955 to Dr. Stanley Groman for his Rail City Museum in Sandy Creek, New York, where it spend two decades pulling tourist trains.
Nos. 11 had series of owners until being purchased in 2006 by Everett President Alan Maples.
Restoration work began at the Western Maryland Scenic where the locomotive had its wheel centers turned, new tires fitted, new crown brass and hub liners machined, spring rigging overhauled, and received a rebuilt pony truck and a new pilot beam. The tender received a new tank bottom, a rebuilt frame and repainting.
The engine was moved last March to the Everett’s shops in Claysburg, Pennsylvania, where boiler tubes were installed, the air system overhauled, new air tanks fitted, lubrication and steam lines run, new boiler studs and washout plugs fitted, a crack in the right cylinder was repaired, piston and valve rods turned, rod brass fitted, new draft plates made for the front end, and the tender received a new drawbar and coal deck.
A successful hydro test for federal inspectors was made in August.
The Everett, based near Altoona, is a 23-mile short line that primarily hauls grain and paper products.
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