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Will Maine Central No. 470 Finally Get Some Love?
THE WATERVILLE, MAINE, city council is considering a proposal by the non-profit New England Steam Corp. (
newenglandsteam.org) to acquire the city’s Maine Central C3 class 4-6-2 No. 470 for $25,000 and restore it to operation. Last year the city asked for proposals to restore the derelict locomotive and received six responses, most of them from out of state. New England Steam was the only group that promised to keep No. 470 in Maine.
The locomotive was built by Alco in May 1924 for main line passen- ger service between Portland and Bangor, Maine, pulling the Gull, Bar Harbor Express, and Kennebec Limited. In steam days MEC and Boston & Maine were under common management, and No. 470 often ran into Boston’s North Station. No. 470 pulled the last steam-powered MEC train, a Portland-Bangor excursion on June 13, 1954, and on June 17 it was placed on display in front of the Waterville passenger station. The locomotive was donated to the city on October 28, 1962, in recognition of the railroad’s 100th anniversary. Soon after that, it was moved into storage at MEC’s Waterville Shops to make room for a
highway project. It was placed on display in its current location near Tower A at the junction of the “Back Road” and “Lower Road” from Portland in December 1970.
Among those behind NESCo are President Richard Glueck, Chief Me- chanical Officer Leverett Fernald, and Steam Operations Advisor Scott Lindsay, who is also involved with the restoration of Norfolk & Western 4-8-4 No. 611 and other locomotives. NESCo says that the locomotive will be restored on the Downeast Scenic Railroad in Ellsworth, Maine, and that Downeast Scenic and the Maine Eastern, both of which oper- ate former Maine Central branches, have agreed to host the locomotive once the restoration is complete, and Pan Am Railways is amenable to moving it over PAR lines. While the locomotive is said to have “good bones,” the harsh Maine winters have taken their toll on its sheet metal and other parts. At press time, the city had started to erect a chain-link fence around the locomotive and NESCo began to work on stabilizing the locomotive, which is expected to take three to eight years to restore. As this issue went to press, the city council has not finalized its decision.
Cheyenne for Restoration ARTICULATION IS EVIDENT as Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 No. 4014 began its journey to Cheyenne, Wyo., on November 14. A front-end loader pulled the 1941 Alco out of its long-time resting place at the Rail Giants Museum (rail-
giants.org) and across the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds parking lot toward the Metrolink main line about a mile away. The UP steam crew had rigged an air compressor on the ten- der, so while the loader provided pulling power, the locomotive’s air brakes provided stopping power. During the week about 750 feet of track was relaid leapfrog style in front of the locomotive as it progressed across the parking lot. Then, the Metrolink main was to have been cut and swung over to connect with the panel track and No. 4014 would be pulled by a diesel to CP Bassett, where it will move onto UP’s Alhambra Sub to the shop at West Colton Yard, where preparations will be com- pleted for the eventual move to Cheyenne, site of the UP steam shop.
27 Big Boy Begins Its Trip to
STEVE CRISE
NEW ENGLAND STEAM CORP.
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