Since fall of 2014, the Corbin, Kentucky Tourism & Convention Commission has been in talks with Bainbridge, Georgia City Manager Chris Hobby about Louisville & Nashville #213, per this article in The Post-Searchlight:

City Council tables decision to move boat basin steam engine (January 20, 2015)

A short excerpt:


Bainbridge is approximately 40 miles north of Tallahassee, Florida.

I'm not 100% sure how they even got the locomotive to where it is, given the condition of roads in that location at the time it was moved there. It wouldn't be too tough to get it out of there as it's right next to a good highway, US 84.
It's hardly rusting away to nothing and has been under cover for many years now. I've seen far worse in my lifetime. I'm not sure how the locals would feel about it leaving.
That said, the L&N didn't run into Bainbridge at all so it really doesn't have any connections to the town. I've always wondered why it was placed where it is. You could drive right past this and have no idea it was there.

Corbin, for years, had an early L&N steel coach, donated by the railroad and used as the offices for the local chamber of commerce. It was left to rot and eventually scrapped.

This locomotive was in a Florida power plant, I assume used as a reserve boiler. I believe it was cut in half to facilitate removal. As I understand it, it was cut between the second and third driver.

2132, built in 1922 is the only South Louisville Shops built locomotive in existence. The other two surviving L&N steam locomotives, 152 (4-6-2, 1905 Rogers) and 2152 (0-8-0, 1925 Alco-Richmond) are at KRM.

This reminds me a little bit of the Monon Railroad Historical-Technical Society and its efforts some years ago to acquire Soo Line 2-8-2 #1024 from the folks in Thief River Falls, Minnesota. The 1024 is the only surviving Monon steam locomotive, being sold during WW2 to the Soo which was short of motive power at the time. As I understand it, the folks in TRF were approached about selling the Mike and they were not adverse to doing it, BUT wanted another Soo Line steamer, preferably a passenger engine, in addition to the money. This was a problem, but efforts were made to see if an alternate Soo steamer could be found. And then supposedly another independent party got involved and more or less DEMANDED that TRF sell the locomotive to him. That pretty much put the kibosh on the deal and Monon #504 remains in Minnesota. I should state that the folks in Thief River Falls take pretty good care of their Mikado. They also have the Soo Line station there, that is well looked after. The chances of 1024/504 ever going "back home to Indiana", are extremely thin.

Les

And this sense of entitlement has killed so many potential projects over the years, in all areas of preservation.
Anyone with any piece of historical transport has, at one point or another, had this happen*. Ask any car person, they'll tell you a story of some 'barn find' auto in the middle of nowhere and people knocking on the owner's door all the time demanding it be sold to them. And how many of these stories end with the car rusting away or going to the crusher because the owner gets so sick of it, they decide never to sell it to anyone becuase of the, "I deserve it" types?

*If I had a nickel for every jerk who demanded I sell my WW2 Jeep to them when they see it at shows (and usually at a price well below market - funny how that works), I could afford to buy 20 of them by now.

David -

I did a bit of checking on the internet and found out that the 2132 was used to move cars of Alabama coal into the power plant at Sneed, Florida. Apparently, Gulf Power has (had?) two power plants, the other one being north of Pensacola, Florida. I checked an interesting website that showed a Vulcan 0-4-0T at that plant bringing in a piece of large equipment on a 4-truck depressed center flat car in January of 1959. The load was so heavy that the power plant crew had to hook up a portable air compressor for braking capacity on the downgrade into the plant. Interesting! I couldn't see a number on the 1925 Vulcan and I wonder if Gulf Power actually owned the little saddletanker. I also wonder if the engine is still in existence.

As for the 2132, the photos I have seen show that she is under a roof with a fairly decent paint job, but the photos were from a few years ago, so she may not look the same today. Also, I believe that your info about the 0-8-0 being cut in half for the move to Bainbridge, is correct.

Perhaps the folks in Corbin, Kentucky might consider trying to acquire L&N 0-8-0 #2152 from KRM. That engine is not in good shape and the museum seems to have its hands full just trying to restore L&N 4-6-2 #152.

Les

Whoops! I did a bit more checking and found a reference to a Gulf Power Company 0-4-0T #2 on the www.steamlocomotive.info website. I don't know for sure if this is the engine mentioned above, but the time frame fits. Now located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (how'd it get up there?) here's a history from that site:

Built by Vulcan in 1925 as Big Bend Coal & Clay #2 in Brazil, Indiana;
to Birmingham Rail & Locomotive (BR&L) in 3/42;
to Foster & Creighton Company #2 (Smyrna, Tennessee) in 3/42;
back to BR&L in 11/43;
to Gulf Power Company (Ensley, Florida) in 11/43;
to American Railway Equipment in 10/64;
then sold (private owners?) in 1972 and then again in 1977.

No photo of the 0-4-0T on the steamlocomotive website so hard to compare photos against the ones of the engine working in 1959 for Gulf Power, but my guess is that this is the same engine.

Les

"American Railway Equipment" would be Arthur LaSalle of Mississippi. The same fellow who did some engine back dating for amusement parks. For a short time he operated a commercial museum/ride in the southeast. The saddletanker was the power.

It did not last long. There was not anything compelling about the experience to draw customers.

I'm just assuming here, but I really think it'd be a given that they already looked into this before looking at a locomotive much further away.

Sorry for the topic drift.

Steven -

Thanks for the last two posts. If Mr. LaSalle had "dolled up" the standard gauge 0-4-0T for his tourist train ride in the southeast similar to what he did with the two 3' gauge steamers there at his home in Mississippi, then a photo of the engine as it now appears in Edmonton, might not help determine if its actually the old Gulf Power number 2. In Florida freight service, it had a "full length" saddle tank which came right up to the smokebox front. The tank might well have been removed for his tourist train operation.

For the record, the Vulcan serial number for this 0-4-0T now up in Edmonton is 3501; built in March of 1925.


Les

I tripped over that location near Hilliard, FL (way up north by the Georgia line north of Jacksonville) back in about 1968. It was pretty much defunct, high weeds, but the caretaker allowed free roaming and photography. The tanker was not altered apart from a bit of paint at the time, there was a narrow gauge rusty hulk on the property that might have been a 0-4-0 or 2-4-2, with or without a tank originally........I think the wooden passenger cars were the prizes of the collection stored there, one a L&N Jim Crow center door combine, the other a former Central of Georgia / Western of Alabama Jim Crow with a smoking compartment between the passenger compartments. Don't know about the L&N, but the other is now in Arkansas turning into dust. It was a beautiful day with a pleasant breeze, the smells of springtime, and a time capsule to explore.

dave

Attached is a scan of a postcard depicting the "American Railway Equipment" trainset, branded as "Civil War Jct" in Hilliard.

Dave

One really interesting fact about the Bainbridge loco; it was cut in half to move it to its current location. When I say cut in half I mean they cut vertically through the boiler through the frame and through the rods. That way there were three big chunks to move- tender, front of loco and back end of loco.

Robert Yuill
Historic Machinery Services

Yup, that's it. LaSalle gave me a similar postcard, but it is maybe in a box at my mother's house.