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Strasburg Steam Freight
Just another day at the Strasburg Rail Road in Pennsylvania... Well, not just any day, but one of the many special days throughout the year that managment elects to use one of its steam engines to pull a freight train. On this day Norfolk Southern left 12 cars for pickup at Leaman Place on Amtrak’s Harrisburg Line. Strasburg’s 2-6-0 No. 89 (former Canadian National) teams up with EMD SW8 No. 8618 pushing on the rear at Cherry Hill on March 25.
PHOTO BY MITCH GOLDMAN
port arm of the Cass Scenic Railroad. It was nearly worn out when acquired by Cass Scenic in 1970, and later damaged in a shop fire. Volunteers are currently working to finish the rebuilding of its running gear (nearly complete as of this writing), after which No. 9’s refurbished boiler, cab, and coal bunker can be rein- stalled. It is possible that the locomotive could enter regular service on Cass Sce- nic excursion trains as early as 2016. The Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Rail-
road is operating the Cass Scenic Rail- road starting this year. Over the winter D&GV employees have been working to return Pacific Coast Shay No. 2 to op- eration (former Mayo Lumber, built by Lima in 1928), which has been out of service since 2009; it is receiving heavy boiler and firebox work.
Return of Southern Pine Lumber No. 28
Texas State Railroad has restored for- mer United States Army 2-8-0 No. 396 to its 1950s appearance as Southern Pine Lumber Company No. 28. The 83- ton Consolidation, which has spent the past two decades operating as “Texas State No. 300,” is the third steam loco- motive to be returned to its historical- ly correct paint and lettering since the state-owned Texas State was leased to Iowa Pacific Holdings in 2012. It is one of two General Pershing-type Army lo- comotives in existence, and the only one currently in serviceable condition. No. 28, which is oil-fired, was con- structed by Baldwin Locomotive Works in November 1917. It was intended to serve in Europe during World War I (hence it was built for European clear-
ances) but instead spent nearly 25 years stateside in Army service, including a stint for the U.S. Army Corps of Engi- neers at Fort Peck, Mont. In 1942 it be- came No. 20 of the Claiborne & Polk Mil- itary Railway, which ran between Fort Polk and Camp Claiborne in Louisiana. After a derailment, it acquired a tender tank from an Army S160-class 2-8-0 and the tender frame from Great Northern 4-6-0 No. 932. When the war ended, No. 20 was sold
to Louisiana short line Tremont & Gulf Railway, which completely overhauled the locomotive and renumbered it 28. In the 1950s, shortly before T&G was acquired by Illinois Central, No. 28 was shipped to east Texas by the Southern Pine Lumber Co. (later merged with the Temple Lumber Co.), which put the 2-8-0 to work out of Pineland. It was re- tired and stored in 1965. In 1973, No. 28, which by that time
had weathered badly in outdoor stor- age, was donated by Arthur Temple of the Temple Lumber Company to the newly-organized Texas State Railroad; it was trucked to TSRR shops in Rusk during 1976, but had to wait another 20 years — time that included the construc- tion of a new boiler — before steaming again. It made its operational debut as Texas State No. 300 in the spring 1996 wearing vivid tourist colors of red with yellow trim, the same paint scheme it wore up through the 2014 season. No. 28 is expected to be joined later
in the season by Magma Arizona 2-8-2 No. 7 (formerly Texas State No. 400), which has been restored to its 1960s ap- pearance with a copper-colored smoke- box. The Rusk shop crew, led by Chief Mechanical Officer Steven Butler, also hopes to begin work on 1911 Baldwin
4-6-2 No. 1316 (formerly Texas State No. 500), which has been out of service for several years. Texas & Pacific 4-6-0 No. 316 (formerly Texas State No. 201) has been out of service since 2013 pending repairs.
Everett Railroad No. 11
Pennsylvania’s Everett Railroad, which operates both freight and passenger ser- vice in Blair County, Pa., came one step closer to having an operational steam lo- comotive on its roster when former Bath & Hammondsport 2-6-0 No. 11 was de- livered to the railroad’s shop on March 25. It recently received heavy repairs to its firebox, as well as wheel and bearing work, at the shops of the Western Mary- land Scenic Railway in Ridgley, W. Va. No. 11 is a 1920 Alco-Cooke Mogul
that was intended for export to Cuba, but wound up being sold instead to the Narragansett Pier Railroad of Rhode Is- land. In 1937, it was purchased by New York short line Bath & Hammondsport, which used it in freight service on its nine-mile line until 1949. In 1955 the locomotive was acquired
by Dr. Stanley Groman and put to work hauling tourists on a 1.5-mile loop track that circled his Rail City Museum in Sandy Pond, N.Y. After the museum closed in 1974, No. 11 changed hands several times. In 2006 it was acquired by Alan Maples, president of Everett Rail- road, who initiated a rebuild. The 2-6-0 still requires the installation of new boil- er tubes and rebuilt appliances before it can operate again. Although there is no timeline for completion of the work, the railroad hopes to return No. 11 to steam before the end of 2015.
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