St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern 5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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![]() Engine #5 running through Jackson, Missouri in 1990 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway #5 is a 2-4-2 "Columbian" type steam locomotive. It was originally built by H.K. Porter, Inc. in 1946 as a saddle tank engine for the Central Illinois Public Service Company. In 1963, the locomotive was donated to the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in North Freedom, Wisconsin as a static display piece. In 1971, #5 was sold to the Crab Orchard and Egyptian Railway to be restored to operating condition, and #5 began pulling passenger excursions on the Crab Orchard and Egyptian's track line, as well as occasional freight runs. During this career, the locomotive was converted to a tender locomotive, and the saddle tank over the boiler was presumably scrapped. In 1985, #5 was sold again to the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway, who one year later began using the locomotive to run tourist trips in Missouri. This career lasted until 1999. Presently, the #5 is out of service, waiting for an overhaul to be completed.
#5 was constructed by H.K. Porter, Incorporated in 1946, and it became one of the last steam engines to be built by Porter during the company's decline. [1] Having started out as a saddle tank engine, #5 was initially used by the Central Illinois Public Service Company to switch coal cars around a rail yard in Meredosia, Illinois. [1] [2] [3] In 1963, #5 was decommissioned from service, and it was among 3 steam engines that the Central Illinois Company donated to the Mid-Continent Railway Museum, with the other two being #6, which was formerly E.I. Dupont Company #4, and #7, which was formerly New York Central #6721. [4] [5]
In 1971, #5 was acquired by the newly-established Crab Orchard and Egyptian Railway, and it was moved to their location in Marion, Illinois. [1] It was subsequently used to pull tourist trips on former Illinois Central Railroad trackage. [6] During the winter of 1973 and 1974, crews converted #5 from a saddle tank engine to a tender engine; they removed the saddle tank from the boiler, and they purchased Illinois Central auxiliary water tender X5512, which was formerly numbered A-512, to be converted to a conventional steam engine tender with a coal bunker, and it became paired with #5. [7] [2] On October 18, 1977, #5 pulled the CO&E's first revenue freight train, and with the subsequent profit of revenue freight runs and the declining success of tourist trips, the CO&E discontinued all of its passenger trains in 1979. [1] #5 was removed from service on the railroad that same year. [7]
In 1985, Shelby Brown approached the CO&E and offered to purchase #5 for the Southeast Missouri Steam Locomotive Association. [6] [2] The offer was accepted, and #5 was moved over the Union Pacific Railroad mainline to Jackson, Missouri, where a tourist railroad was being developed to operate over former Missouri Pacific Railroad trackage. [8] The engine returned to service in 1986, and it began pulling passenger trips on the new tourist railroad, now dubbed the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway, between Jackson, Gordonville, Dutchtown, and Delta. [8]
In the mid-late 1990's though, the FRA enforced new rules and regulations in steam locomotive operation and maintenance, and several steam engines that were operational at the time had to be inspected. [9] After performing one last run in 1999, #5 underwent an FRA inspection, but it failed the inspection after damaged flues were discovered. [3] The engine had to undergo a complete overhaul, which would include a lot of the parts being required to be replaced with newer identical ones, in order to run again, but it was estimated to cost $150,000 to complete the work, and the StLIM&S didn't have that kind of money. [9] They began a fundraising campaign to raise enough money to begin the overhaul, but the cost soon ballooned to $200,000, and a lack of funds would cause #5's overhaul to be cancelled. [9] [3] The engine's parts would be scattered around the Jackson, Missouri depot for the next 20 years. [6] [3]
"The public has amnesia. When No. 5 was shoved to the rear and put out of the spotlight, a lot of people in town forgot that we even had a steam engine."
—Billy Mikoliza [3]
In 2019, five steam locomotive enthusiasts in Southeastern Missouri and Southern Illinois, Billy Mikoliza, Nathan Beasley, Aspen Welker, Matthew Terlunen, and Lucas Smith, began to formulate plans and applications to return #5 to operational status. [3] Two years later, in January 2021, it was announced that the five-person team would raise funds to reassemble #5 with new components for a return to service. [3] The team began to research historical records and evaluate expenses, and they consulted the National Museum of Transportation in St. Louis for information on the construction of engines similar to #5. [3] They also began to formulate plans to restore the trackage that lies between Jackson and Gordonville. [3]
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-8-2 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels, eight powered and coupled driving wheels and two trailing wheels. This type of steam locomotive is commonly known as the Mountain type, though the New York Central Railroad used the name Mohawk for their 4-8-2s.
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-8-4 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and four trailing wheels on two axles. The type was first used by the Northern Pacific Railway, and initially named the Northern Pacific, but railfans and railroad employees have shortened the name since its introduction. It is most-commonly known as a Northern.
The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington Route, the Burlington, CB&Q, or as the Q, it operated extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and also in Texas through subsidiaries Colorado and Southern Railway, Fort Worth and Denver Railway, and Burlington-Rock Island Railroad. Its primary connections included Chicago, Minneapolis–Saint Paul, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Denver. Because of this extensive trackage in the midwest and mountain states, the railroad used the advertising slogans "Everywhere West", "Way of the Zephyrs", and "The Way West".
The Tennessee Central Railway was founded in 1884 as the Nashville and Knoxville Railroad by Alexander S. Crawford. It was an attempt to open up a rail route from the coal and minerals of East Tennessee to the markets of the midstate, a service which many businessmen felt was not being adequately provided by the existing railroad companies. They also wanted to ship coal and iron ore to the Northeastern US over the Cincinnati Southern Railway, which was leased to the Southern and operated as the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway (CNOTP), through their Cincinnati gateway. The N&K was only completed between Lebanon, where it connected to a Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway branch from Nashville, and Standing Stone.
A 2-8-8-2, in the Whyte notation for describing steam locomotive wheel arrangements, is an articulated locomotive with a two-wheel leading truck, two sets of eight driving wheels, and a two-wheel trailing truck. The equivalent UIC classification is, refined to Mallet locomotives, (1'D)D1'. These locomotives usually employ the Mallet principles of articulation—with the rear engine rigidly attached to the boiler and the front engine free to rotate—and compounding. The 2-8-8-2 was a design largely limited to American locomotive builders. The last 2-8-8-2 was retired in 1962 from the N&W's roster, two years past the ending of steam though steam was still used on steel mill lines and other railroads until 1983.
The St. Louis–San Francisco Railway, commonly known as the "Frisco", was a railroad that operated in the Midwest and South Central United States from 1876 to November 21, 1980. At the end of 1970, it operated 4,547 miles (7,318 km) of road on 6,574 miles (10,580 km) of track, not including subsidiaries Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway and the Alabama, Tennessee and Northern Railroad; that year, it reported 12,795 million ton-miles of revenue freight and no passengers. In 1980 it was purchased by and absorbed into the Burlington Northern Railroad. Despite its name, it never came close to San Francisco.
The St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company, known by its nickname of "The Cotton Belt Route" or simply "Cotton Belt", was a Class I railroad that operated between St. Louis, Missouri, and various points in the U.S. states of Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Texas from 1891 to 1980, when the system added the Rock Island's Golden State Route and operations in Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. The Cotton Belt operated as a Southern Pacific subsidiary from 1932 until 1992, when its operation was assumed by Southern Pacific Transportation Company.
The Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad is a heritage railroad that operates freight and passenger excursions in Boone County, Iowa.
The Illinois Terminal Railroad Company, known as the Illinois Traction System until 1937, was a heavy duty interurban electric railroad with extensive passenger and freight business in central and southern Illinois from 1896 to 1956. When Depression era Illinois Traction was in financial distress and had to reorganize, the Illinois Terminal name was adopted to reflect the line's primary money making role as a freight interchange link to major steam railroads at its terminal ends, Peoria, Danville, and St. Louis. Interurban passenger service slowly was reduced, ending in 1956. Freight operation continued but was hobbled by tight street running in some towns requiring very sharp radius turns. In 1956, ITC was absorbed by a consortium of connecting railroads.
Nickel Plate Road 765 is a class "S-2" 2-8-4 "Berkshire" type steam locomotive built for the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, commonly referred to as the "Nickel Plate Road". In 1963, No. 765, renumbered as 767, was donated to the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana, where it sat on display at the Lawton Park, while the real No. 767 was scrapped at Chicago in 1964.
The 5-mile (8.0 km) Reader Railroad was a tourist-only railroad operating in Reader, Arkansas from 1973 to 1991. As a 23-mile (37 km) common carrier prior to May 1973, it was the last all steam locomotive-powered, mixed train railroad operating in North America. It operated trackage in Ouachita County and Nevada County, Arkansas. The five mile tourist railroad operated until 1991, when it could not meet the new federal safety regulations.
The Monticello Railway Museum is a non-profit railroad museum located in Monticello, Illinois, about 18 miles west of Champaign, IL. It is home to over 100 pieces of railroad equipment, including several restored diesel locomotives and cars.
St. Louis–San Francisco 4018 is a class USRA Light 2-8-2 "Mikado" steam locomotive which operated for three decades hauling freight between Bessemer and Birmingham, Alabama, on the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway. It went on display at the Alabama State Fairgrounds in 1952 and is one of only a few locomotives of its type that survive.
The Crab Orchard and Egyptian Railway is a Class III common carrier shortline railroad that operates in the cities of Marion and Herrin in the Southern Illinois region. It is most historically recognized by the FRA for being the last U.S. railroad of any kind to use steam locomotives exclusively in regular revenue freight service up until March 1986.
The Stone Mountain Scenic Railroad (SMRR) is a standard gauge railroad that circles the perimeter of Stone Mountain Park in a loop, and provides views of the mountain en route.
Western Maryland Scenic Railroad No. 734, also known as Mountain Thunder, is an SC-1 class 2-8-0 “Consolidation” type steam locomotive originally built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1916 for the Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad (LS&I) as No. 18. It was renumbered to 34 in 1925. No. 34 was used to pull heavy iron ore trains for the LS&I, until it was retired in 1961. The locomotive was subsequently sold to the Marquette and Huron Mountain Railroad, where it was stored in a sideline alongside other LS&I steam locomotives. In 1971, No. 34 was sold to the Illinois Railway Museum for static display.
Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad No. 33 is a preserved SC-1 class 2-8-0 "consolidation" type steam locomotive originally built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in April 1916 for the Munising, Marquette and Southeastern Railway as No. 44. In 1924, the MM&SE was purchased by the Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad and the locomotive was renumbered to 33. It served the LS&I by pulling heavy iron ore trains until it was retired from revenue service in 1962. The following year, it was sold to the Marquette and Huron Mountain tourist railroad to operate in excursion service, but instead sat idle in Marquette.
Buffalo Creek and Gauley Railroad No. 4 is a preserved 2-8-0 "Consolidation" type steam locomotive. It was constructed by Baldwin in 1926 as the only locomotive to be bought-new by the Buffalo Creek and Gauley Railroad. It served the railroad by pulling coal and lumber trains throughout Clay County, West Virginia until it was retired in 1965. No. 4 was restored to operating condition by the Quakertown and Eastern Railroad for excursion service in Pennsylvania, and it made its way to the North Carolina Transportation Museum in 1978. No. 4 was subsequently used to pull tourist trains across the museum's property in Spencer, North Carolina from when its multi-year overhaul was completed in 1986 to when its flue time expired in 2001. The locomotive spent fourteen years in storage, waiting for a rebuild that never came to fruition. In 2015, No. 4 was purchased by the Durbin and Greenbrier Valley Railroad, who moved it to their shops with the hopes of restoring it to run it on their trackage between Durbin and Cass, West Virginia.
Polson Logging Company 2 is a 2-8-2 “Mikado” steam locomotive built by Baldwin in 1912. It was originally built for the Saginaw Timber Company to pull logging trains. After that, it went through several ownership changes throughout both the steam era and the preservation era, before it was purchased by caretaker Skip Lichter in 1982. Lichter restored Polson Lumber 2 to operational condition and loaned it to the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in North Freedom, Wisconsin. The engine was later removed from service in 2000 to undergo a federally-mandated rebuild. Disagreement over who should cover the restoration costs ultimately led to an arbiter finding in Lichter's favor.
Huntingdon and Broad Top Mountain Railroad and Coal Co. 38 is a preserved 2-8-0 "Consolidation" type steam locomotive. It was built by Baldwin in April 1927 for use on the Huntingdon and Broad Top Mountain Railroad and Coal Company in south central Pennsylvania in the United States, which commonly used the locomotive to pull short-distance freight trains, as well as occasional passenger trains, until the railroad shut down operations in 1954. The locomotive was subsequently acquired by the Rail City Historical Museum in Sandy Creek, New York for static display. In the late 1960s, No. 38 was sold to the Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad in Lakeville, New York, who restored the locomotive to operating condition to pull their excursion trains.