Folks,Can anyone give me some information about the group of 24" steam engines owned by Railstar at Watertown, NY?Are they in private hands or what?They apparantly own one or more engines at the Erie Canal Villege at Rome, NY, but the group's web site does not say anything about the village railroad. I am not even sure if they still run steam.Ted Miles

Ted, I think they have kind of got their hands full with a growing situation in Colorado at present,and a dying one in New England - Steven Torrico or Randy Gustafson may be in better positions to know what's up with the two foot stuff, hope they will contribute better answers.dave

This has got to be on Ed Kelley's list of "places to go." Try contacting him, he's got info on all sorts of privately owned narrow gauge stuff. Are you out there Ed?http://www.bjwrr.com/ontrack/webzines.htm

Yes I'm here...just got back online after relocating back to the 'left coast'.Ron Trottier had I guess operated the 2' steam operation at Erie Canal Village (The "Rome & Fort Bull Railroad") with a homebuilt 2-6-2, and several years later after the park had been closed for some time, he purchased the park outright from the City of Rome, NY and after operating a a Chance steam outline locomotive for a season or two, brought back steam to the park. The locomotive was rebuilt in the shop at Watertown. It's a small track, but Trottier has really breathed life into the old attraction. Unfortunately, I hear their packet boat was sunk by vandals recently. Anyone passing through the area should try and make a visit to this one. It's one of few true 2' lines outside of Maine still in operation, with American-made equipment nonetheless.Mr. Trottier's collection is quite impressive, ranging down to 15" and 16" gauge amusement park (steam and diesel) locomotives. The locomotive currently being used at Erie Canal Village is a little Davenport 0-4-0T rebuilt and somewhat backdated (originally using a saddle tank, replaced with two side tanks) by William Willock of Syosset (Long Island), NY. Willock did operate it, and it eventually was a display for many years at the now-defunct Frontier Town western park in North Hudson, NY. I believe the cars used on the line were built in their own shop in Watertown, with the exception of one, from the High Country RR in Golden (defunct), Colorado by way of Edaville. I believe it was built on a Colorado Central (3') flatcar body.The collection includes the other Willock locomotive, which did operate at Frontier Town for many years (Porter 0-4-0T turned 2-4-0 in Syosset), a 2' Crown locomotive, the original Erie Canal Village engine, as well as another 2-6-2, which has an interesting story in itself. Built originally by Davenport as a 2-6-2T trench locomotive during WWI, and the running gear discovered by Byron Hiatt of Creston, Iowa at Davenport. He purchased two of these in such condition and tracked down some boilers used in stationary applications, and rebuilt them into rather unique tender engines for his 2' operation in Creston. Both locomotives were owned by a fellow in Monroe, Washington, I recall this one (#2968) for sale, and the other had already sold.I do know there at least were plans to eventually get some of these locomotives running as time, money, and demand deemed neccessary, though like Dave says, the Loop situation may have reversed that. I believe all of the locomotives are personally owned by Ron Trottier, but I'm not quite sure. I'm pretty sure everything is stored on private property in Watertown, with the exception of what's running in Rome.The 16" Hudson is quite an interesting piece. Built by Oscar Coffman of Reseda, CA in the 40s and heavily hacked over to appear as a Hudson, lettered up for the New York Central. It's cab is large enough to accomadate the hogger beneath its roof, though its drivers are original Coffman work and dwarfed by the rest of the rebuilt locomotive's dimensions.The railroad is now featured on the Erie Canal Village page:http://www.eriecanalvillage.net/pages/rides.htmlAs well as Matt Stolzenfels' photo sitehttp://marina.fortunecity.com/mainbrace/302/ecv.html

Ed, wow, that is a lot of great information. That park is interesting to me because it follows two of my interests at once, canals and narrow gauge steam trains. I have examples of both types of these in my post card collection. Now If I can just see which engine; as you say they are much re-built over time. I am also glad to hear that they have reopened. one thing about canals it is fairly easy to pump out a sunken canal boat!Ted miles

Some visuals:The Frontier Town (operating) locomotive, a former saddle-tankerCredit: Stephen GrossSitting at the closed Frontier Town (Webshots)William Willock's Davenport on display in North Hudson before Ron Trottier purchased it:Some photos of the Byron 2968 in Watertown, as well as a test-steaming of the Davenport, can be found below. Apparently, the latest addition to the collection is the little 0-4-0T that was on display in Pascoag, RI.http://steamlocomotive.com/lists/NY.shtml

Does anyone know the current status of the 24" gauge locos in Watertown? One of them, the one pictured above, apparently was built by Porter in 1902 for American Steel Hoop in Pittsburgh then came to Youngstown as Carnegie Illinois Steel No. 10 then US Steel 10. I am very curious to learn about this locomotive. I had no idea that Carnegie had any 24" gauge operations at the Youngstown District plants.

HK Porter C/N 2634
24" 0-4-0T 9/1902

Hmmmmmm......

Does that look like rusty locomotives stored outside?

https://www.google.com/maps/place/301+P ... 03!6m1!1e1

EDIT: Looked at the Bird's Eye view of the property on Bing Maps. Definitely two small steam locomotives.

From the book ' Little Railways of the World' by Fredrick Shaw