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.

Leviathan Returning to Wellington for Excursions

The Leviathan is returning to Wellington over the Memorial Day weekend and will be joined by a replica of a Lincoln Funeral train car.

Illinois construction contractor David Kloke built the 4-4-0 No. 63 as well as a replica of the car that carried the body of assassinated President Abraham Lincoln from Washington, D.C., to Springfield, Ill., in April-May 1865.

That train’s route took it through Wellington during the early morning hours of April 29 after it left Cleveland at midnight and arrived in Columbus at 7 a.m.

Between Cleveland and Columbus the train traveled tracks now owned by CSX and previously owned by the Big Four.

The Lake Shore Railway Association of Wellington will operate the Leviathan and the Lincoln Funeral Car over six miles of former Lorain & West Virginia trackage.

The excursion trains will include air conditioned coaches, a caboose, and an open air car (weather permitting).

Trains will operate May 23-25 at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m., and 5 p.m. A night photo session will be held at 8 p.m. on May 23 that will feature the Leviathan, the Lincoln Funeral Car and Civil War re-enactors.

Tickets are $30 for adults, $15 for children under 12 and $25 for seniors. Night photo session tickets are $50 and limited to 40 people.

Aside from building the Leviathan, Kloke also built the York, another 4-4-0 replica based in Pennsylvania at the Steam into History attraction near York.

He created the Lincoln funeral train car to mark the 150^th anniversary of Lincoln’s death. Kloke plans to begin tours with the car in May that will continue into the fall.

The tour of the Lincoln funeral train car will begin in Springfield, Ill., and visit many of the cities where the 1865 Lincoln funeral train stopped.

The touring replica funeral train car will have two lanterns that were used on the original funeral train.

For more information about the visit of the Leviathan and Lincoln funeral train car to Wellington, go to www.lsra.org.

Trackside with Leviathan on Saturday

Akron Railroad Club members Edward Ribinskas and Jeff Troutman journeyed to Wellington on Saturday along with two other friends to photograph the Leviathan 63, which was pulling excursions on the former Lorain & West Virginia Railroad.

Levithan is a replica of a Central Pacific 4-4-0 that operated in the 19th century. Built by Kloke Locomotive Works, it tours the country and offers a glimpse of 19th century locomotive power.

Photographs by Edward Ribinskas

 

 

Leviathan to Appear at Michigan Festival

Leviathan No. 63 will appear at Train Expo 2014 in Owosso, Mich., this June.

The 4-4-0, built in 2009, was designed after one that worked for the Central Pacific Railroad. David Kloke and his Kloke Locomotive Works built the locomotive.
Leviathan will join six other steam locomotives already slated to attend the three-day festival.

Those include Pere Marquette 2-8-4 No. 1225 and Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765. The expo will feature live steam excursions, historic planes, and classic automobiles.
For more information, visit www.michigansteamtrain.com.