Indiana Rail Museum Reunites C&O Steamer With its Builders Plate

An Indiana railroad museum has acquired the builder’s plate for a former Chesapeake & Ohio steam locomotive decades after the two were separated in the 1950s

The Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum found the plate for C&O 2-8-4 No. 2789, which the museum based in North Judson is seeking to have placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The locomotive was built by Alco in Schenectady, New York, in 1947.

In a news release, the museum credited its secretary, Kyle Flanigan , with doing much of the work to find the builders plate.

 “Once these kinds of things are gone from a locomotive, they are usually gone forever,” Flanigan said. “To have an opportunity like this, we simply could not let it slip away.”

No. 2789 is the last of 90 C&O Kanawha-type locomotives and the only surviving example of the five constructed with a welded boiler.

Kentucky Group Wins Trains Preservation Award

The Kentucky Steam Heritage Corporation has received the 2019 preservation award from Trains magazine.

The $10,000 grant will be used in the restoration of former Chesapeake & Ohio 2-8-4 No. 2716.

The museum plans to use the funds to pay for rebuilding the hot water pump on the Kanawha type locomotive’s boiler system.

Trains said it received 37 applications for the award, including bids for funding for renovation of rolling stock; steam and diesel locomotive rebuilding; and preservation of archives.

The Kentucky group earlier this year was awarded $46,000 from the John Emery Trust to pay for new boiler tubes for No. 2716, which was retired by the C&O in 1956 and donated to the Kentucky Railway Museum three years later.

No. 2716 has twice been restored to operating condition. The Southern Railway restored it in 1981 and the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society overhauled it in 1996.

After both restorations the 2716 ran only for a brief time before being sidelined with mechanical issues.

The Heritage Corporation is leasing the 2716 from the Kentucky Railway Museum.

C&O Steam Locomotive To Stay in Dennison

A Tuscarawas County judge has ruled that a former Chesapeake & Ohio steam locomotive will remain where it is in Dennison. Judge Edward O’Farrell determined that the Dennison Railroad Depot Museum has clear title to No. 2700, a Kanawha type locomotive that was built in the 1940s.

The ruling came in a dispute with Nick Kallas, executive director of the Illinois Railway Museum, who purchased No. 2700, but never took possession of it. At the time, the locomotive was located on Timken Company property in Canton. Timken took possession of the locomotive after the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway announced plans to reconfigure its tracks in that area. Timken based its action on the locomotive being abandoned property.

Timken offered the locomotive to the Dennison museum with the stipulation that if the museum refused the offer the locomotive would be scrapped. The museum and Timken sent certified letters to Kallas informing him of their intentions, but he never responded. The C&O steamer has been in Dennison for the past 10 years.

The Dennison museum, which is housed in a former Pennsylvania Railroad passenger depot, has received a grant to fund restoration work on No. 2700, which will remain at the museum on static display. That work is expected to begin next year.

In an interview with the Times-Reporter of New Philadelphia, museum executive director Wendy Zucal said the museum is glad that the locomotive will remain there. “We plan to put it in a place of honor as a showcase at the east end of Dennison,” she said.