Does anyone know the status of SP 319, a 4-6-0 built by Cooke in 1892? It is former T&NO, H&TC and last reported sitting in a field outside of Griffin Ga. at an abandoned railroad museum.

Per steam locomotive info.

http://www.steamlocomotive.info/vlocomotive.cfm?Display=445

Web info for Roosevelt Railroad

http://rooseveltrailroad.tripod.com/

Undated Photo Album: Roosevelt Railroad photos by L. R. Myers


(Warning: Lance's main photo album also has photos of PRR 1361's boiler in Orbisonia.)

Tim,

The last time that I checked, they also have the former Louisiana Cypress Lumber Co. #1 at the same location, which should be even more interesting for you.

Thanks eleuck for the information. These engines deserve a better fate. The 319 actually had some boiler work done sometime during the sixties or seventies. The Louisiana Cypress #1 was in decent cosmetic shape during the same era, then was completely taken apart and left outdoors somewhere in Georgia. I guess they reassembled it and gave to the museum, which is now defunct. I wonder if the engines are available for sale?

sad pictures. now there's one that could use JJJ's attention.

I once visited the Thompson collection there at Monee, Illinois and found a guy working on SP Ten-Wheeler #319. As I recall, he had a couple of young kids with him. He told me that he had been spending his vacations the past couple of years, coming up from Georgia to work on taking parts off of the engine so it could eventually be lightened enough for a move down there. He told me about the Georgia line and its connection to FDR. It's been a number of years now since that meeting and I don't recall the gentleman's name. I assume that he was part of that museum. I wonder whatever happened to the dream?

Les

Pictures of collection while still in IL at Thompson

http://home.earthlink.net/~stevekraus/monee.html

I was in Griffin, GA last Saturday and went by Roosevelt Railroad site. It;s a shame that those engines are sitting there rotting away.

K. Wiggins
Chattanooga, TN

There is mention made of a three steam locomotives at this apparently defunct museum, but only the 0-4-0T and the 4-6-0 are shown in L.R. Myers photo essay. Mention is made of the third engine being Louisiana Cypress Lumber Company 2-6-2 #1, a 25 ton Porter locomoive. If this is the third engine, where might it be today? This little Prairie only weighs 25 tons, so may have been trucked elsewhere. Anyone have info?

Les

Greetings:
One of the reasons John Thompson moved No.319 (and also his two Coronet Phosphate locomotives Nos. 6 & 9) to the Illinois Central roundhouse at Markhan was that the foreman there was Irv Kaufran, a real steam expert from the old school (read: he actually worked on them when they were operated in the real world). Irv was one of the guys who Dick Jensen depended on for advise and occasionally help with problems of a technical nature.
Irv's first reaction when he saw the 319 was: "...its' not worth working on, get a good locomotive".
John went ahead and hired a boiler shop to work on it. As I recall, it got a new mudring, side sheet and wrapper sheet patches, a new dry pipe and set of tubes, etc. The boiler shop could never get a decent hydro test on it. Every time they repaired something, something else would fail. I was told the John had over $100.K in the boiler work alone when he gave up. Oh, and they never addressed the severe and extensive pitting/wastage on the boiler shell.
John then bought the Coronet Phosphate locomotives and moved them to Markham. At least they were fairly complete (although in similar condition).
I occasionally worked for John, helping his steam mechanic,David Krall.
In January 1971, I helped prepare and move all three of John's locomotives at Markham on their own wheels, in a special train, to Monee, IL.
John's estate, pig farm and winery were in Monee as were four more totally derelict, worn out steam locomotives from Copeland, FL (they too all had badly wasted boilers).
John was an interesting fellow: rich, but pretty much lacking any common sense. I don't believe that he ever even saw any of the above mention locomotives prior to them arriving in Illinois. I doubt that anyone inspected these either. Later on, he sent David Krall out to inspect locomotives for him.
I believe that the fellow seen working on the 319 at Monee was Warren Frye, who I believe purchased it from John's estate. Warren also owns the aforementioned LLL 2-6-2 No.1.
I recall selling Warren boiler tools, etc. and answering questions albeit many years ago...
J.David

What's the condition of the RR itself these days? A pal of mine a few years ago went by there and described it as a 'weed-covered abandoned spur" with no real operating potential. He said it was, "The kind of line you'd give anything to have on your own land to just play with, but nothing you could run any real trains on," given the condition.

J. David -

I recently acquired a book by Alan R. Lind entitled "The Illinois Central Story", a 384 page publication with photos, maps and a lot about the Illinois Central Gulf and its predecessors. On page 19 of that book, Mr. Lind included a photo taken at the Markham roundhouse in early 1958 of about 3 dozen IC shop men draped all over the front of 4-8-2 #2606 as they celebrated steams farewell at Markham. I wonder if Mr. Kaufran was one of those pictured shop men? I also wonder how those men might have celebrated what probably was an eventual furloughing of some of them, or transfers to other IC locations, due to easier diesel maintenance?

Les

Interestingly enough earlier this year I had a discussion with Louis Saillard about making an attempt to purchase the Louisiana Cypress Lumber #1 for the Southern Forest Heritage Museum, at Long Leaf, LA.

I had seen the engine and been all over it, when it was owned by Dael Campbell, and stored along Braes Bayou in Houston about 1970. Dael sold the locomotive to Mr. Frye who moved it to Georgia.

Prompted by this discussion, I researched Mr. Frye and found that he had passed on this past November 6. His obituaries mention both his love for engine #1 and his working on the engine from 1995- 2007, as well as his love for his home community of Griffin, GA.

The obituary mentions that the family wished for donations in his memory to the Tennessee Valley RR museum in Chattanooga.

If there is anyone else who has any further knowledge regarding the current ownership of the engine, or any plans for it, I would appreciate hearing them. All said and done, it would be the ideal locomotive to return to Louisiana and the museum.

Everett,

I was checking the website http://rooseveltrailroad.tripod.com/ and noted the names/phone numbers of three genlemen connected (at least at some point) with the museum. Have you tried contacting them regarding present status of the collection?

Jim Tatum