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No. 1275 is very close in appearance to the original; NRE moved the headlight back to its original location on the cab and installed class lights on the short hood, and painted it in CRI&P’s red and yellow “billboard” scheme with white block lettering. NRE employees were justifiably proud of the unit when it came out of the shop, since it was the first Rock Island unit to emerge from Silvis since the railroad shut down in 1980. Number 1275 is complete with traction motors and prime mover, but for now will be a static display, joining a former GM&O caboose painted as Rock Island. Although No. 1275 isn’t a perfect representation of a Rock Island GP7, it allows the Eldon Depot Museum to showcase the type of motive power that was once commonplace in Iowa. The museum has also purchased an original Rock Island flatcar, No. 91333, which will be refurbished for exhibit with No. 1275. For details visit www.
eldondepotmuseum.org.
York to B&O Museum
The B&O Railroad Museum has acquired at auction the York, one of three operating replica steam locomotives built by the Baltimore & Ohio in 1926, from Chicago’s Museum of Science & Industry. “This acquisition repatriates an important locomotive to Baltimore,” said B&O Museum executive director Courtney B. Wilson in a press release. “The York represented an important technological step in early railroad motive power development with features that would define how steam engines were built into the 1950s.” The reported purchase price, after fees were added
by auction house Bonhams of San Francisco, was just over $200,000. The original York was a 3.5-ton vertical- boilered 0-4-0 built by Phinias Davis of York, Pa., during 1831. The first steam locomotive to burn coal, it competed in — and won — Baltimore & Ohio’s locomotive trials held in Baltimore. Although York won the competition, the design was not duplicated in its entirety and the locomotive was later scrapped. In 1926 B&O’s Mount Clare Shops created a live steam replica of the York for 1927’s “Fair of the Iron Horse,” which celebrated the founding of the railroad. The reproduction York isn’t perfect in every detail but gives a good idea of what the original machine looked like. The York replica appeared under
steam at Chicago’s 1933-’34 Century of Progress World’s Fair, and then was donated to the Museum of Science & Industry. It spent ten years on loan to the community of York, and was briefly displayed at the B&O Museum in 1977 before being placed on permanent display at MSI in the 1980s. The B&O Museum, which already
owns the other two operating replicas fabricated by B&O in 1926, plans to incorporate York (which is no longer serviceable) into its permanent exhibition, “Road to Rails.” Besides the acquisition of York, it has
been a busy year at the B&O Museum. It recently completed a $500,000 restoration of B&O 2-6-0 No. 600, the J. C. Davis, which was built in 1875. It was severely damaged in 2003 when the museum’s roof collapsed, and was the last of eight locomotives to be cosmetically restored. Additionally, the museum has repainted former B&O GP30 No. 6944 into its original blue livery.
Seaboard Coast Line SD45 No. 2024
After a 40-year career that took it from America’s East Coast to the mountains of Montana, Seaboard Coast Line SD45 No. 2024 has been preserved in its original paint scheme at the Southern Appalachia Railway Museum (SARM) of Oak Ridge, Tenn. The unit was built for SCL in September 1971 and became Seaboard System No. 2024 in January 1983 (it was renumbered 8924 the following year). It went to work for CSX in 1986 before being sold to VMV Enterprises, which sold it again to Montana Rail Link. In the early 2000s, it was transferred to IMRL and was used regularly between St. Paul, Minn., and Kansas City, Mo. In 2007 No. 8924 was sold once
again, this time to Northern Illinois & Wisconsin Railroad (NIWX Corp.), a locomotive leasing company, which sent it to the Eastern Washington Gateway, a short line running between Coulee City and Cheney, Wash. Despite its many owners, No. 8924 is still in unrebuilt condition with its original 20-cylinder EMD engine intact. In 2012, the now 40-year-old unit was acquired by Vintage Locomotives, Inc., owned by Ed Bowers, and is now on long-term loan to SARM. In September, No. 8924 was repainted
into its original SCL black and yellow colors by Railway Service Contractors of Grandview, Mo., who also removed its ditch lights and reinstalled its gyrating headlight. It was shipped to Oak Ridge wearing temporary VILX reporting marks; full SCL lettering and numbers will be applied by museum volunteers. The unit is operational, and will be placed into service at the museum.
Seaboard Coast Line SD45 to SARM
The Southern Appalachia Railway Museum (SARM) took delivery of Seaboard Coast Line SD45 No. 2024 in early October. The fully functional, unrebuilt 20-cylinder EMD is on loan to the museum from Ed Bowers’ Vintage Locomotives, Inc. (VLIX). Full SCL lettering and logos will be applied by museum volunteers, and the unit will be available for occasional excursions and special events on the museum’s railroad in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
PHOTO BY MARK RAGAN
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