Age of Steam To Present Classic Railroad Film Featuring Steam Locomotive that is Now Part of its Collection

The Age of Steam Roundhouse Museum will host a showing of a classic film that features a steam locomotive that is in its collection.

Emperor of the North had Yreka Western Railroad No. 19, which is awaiting restoration at the roundhouse near Sugarcreek, Ohio.

The film will be shown on Sept. 30 at 7 p.m. at the Quaker Cinema in New Philadelphia.

Tickets are $10 and can be ordered at the museum’s website at http://www.ageofsteamroundhouse.org or purchased at the door of the theater.

The 1972 movie, starring Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine and Keith Carradine, is about the attempt of two Depression-era hobos to ride a train protected by a violent conductor who will stop at nothing to prevent them from riding No. 19.

“We couldn’t think of a better venue for this event than the Quaker,” said Noel Poirier, the museum’s executive director, in a news release. “It really fits the theme and feel of the film.”

He said proceeds from the showing of the movie will go toward ongoing repairs of No. 19.

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.

AOS Buys Another Locomotive

Jerry Jacobson owns another steam locomotive. His Age of Steam Roundhouse purchased Yreka Western 2-8-2 No. 19 during a sheriff’s sale on Thursday in California.

AOS won out over the Valley Railroad of Essex, Connecticut, the only other bidder for the locomotive.

Trains magazine reported that the winning bid of AOS was $400,000.

The sale of the locomotive happened after the Chelatchie Boiler Works of Woodland, Washington, placed a lien on it for $264,000.

Chelatchie acted after not being paid for boiler work that it performed in 2006. By a 2013 court order, No. 19 was confined to its engine house.

A sheriff’s sale had been set for October 2013, but was called off when the previous operators of the Yreka Western alleged that they had a superior line on the locomotive.

Under terms of the sale, AOS will have two weeks to move the locomotive from its current location.

AOS officials told Trains they plan to load loose parts onto a truck and contract with a trucking company to move the locomotive on a low-boy trailer.

The tender will be taken by truck to Sugar Creek while the engine will move to Sacramento, California, where it will be placed on a railroad flat car for transport to Ohio.

The AOS owns another former McCloud River Railroad steam locomotives, No. 9, which it purchased last year from Steve Butler.

No. 19 last operated in November 2008. It appeared in the 1973 move Emperor of the North with Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine.

It also once ran on the Oregon, Pacific & Eastern Railroad.