Wonderful!

[quote="bigjim4life"]Well, I didn't see this coming...

Should be an interesting one to watch, with all of the prior comments about what a basket case it is.

Excellent news ! FINALLY someone with the deep pockets that will be required to get this long neglected locomotive back in service !

Yes, very interesting. I suspect U.S. Sugar is privately held, and the owner has the authority to indulge a little?

Why, way back when, did U.S. Sugar use Pacifics for cane train service? Does that seem like the wrong application? There must have been plenty of retired freight power (Southern Railway comes to mind).

I never knew these engines were in cane service.

From the US Sugar website:

"Today, the company is owned primarily by its employees and charitable foundations set up by Charles Stewart Mott—The C. S. Mott Foundation and The Mott Children’s Health Center."

Hi,

Great to hear.

I lament S&A 750 (ex-FEC ??) not running. But with A&WP 290 not being utilized, I do not see 750 coming back anytime soon. I grew up with 750 running the Sothern Steam Excursions out of Atlanta.

Doug vV

The FEC Pacifics were not strictly passenger power, but were used on local freight. 148 weighs about 104 tons in working order, not a heavy locomotive. 68" or 70" drivers: not an 85 mph speedster.

USSC probably got a really good deal on them back in the day, and they were right there at interchange. Light engines for a light-rail industrial operation, perfect, eh?

Howard P.
Whippanyport, NJ

How many ex-FEC 4-6-2's did U.S. Sugar own? I know of numbers 113, 148 and 153. Were there others? And were there any other steamers on their roster besides these FEC Pacifics?


Les

Plenty of others, ranging from 4-4-0s in the early days to USRA pattern 0-8-0s, a few 2-8-2s, and a good number of big 4-8-2s, but these light 4-6-2s and one 0-8-0 would be the only survivors, all largely by virtue of having been sold to other railroads or U.S. Sugar.

The light 4-6-2s were very much a standard engine on the FEC; the road had dozens of them at one point, and they were apparently used as dual service power, as were the 4-8-2s. The 2-8-2s were a relative rarity (I think maybe only 20 engines in one class).

I think it makes sense for a railroad that's quite flat and wouldn't have been muscling 200-car coal trains around.

Other roads that used 4-6-2s in dual service, usually with 70-inch drivers, included Canadian Pacific, Lehigh Valley, Lackawanna, and New York Central. Someone here mentioned a while back that the NYC's K-11s handled something like 95% of all the traffic on the Adirondack Division, which is now the embattled Adirondack Scenic.

A lot of FEC's power got sold after the collapse of the Florida land boom. Besides 4-6-2s going to a variety of shortline and regional roads, some of the 4-8-2s wound up on the Western Pacific, and others would run in Mexico. The surviving 0-8-0 wound up on the Kansas City Southern.

Erie, ACL, and RF&P also routinely used certain classes of Pacifics in freight service. I wouldn't be surprised if there were others.

Tom

Sam Freeman, who purchased 148 from USSC, told me once that, "I wanted one of those light FEC Mountains from Mexico, but couldn't get one out of them."

Howard P.
Ringoespaw, NJ

J3a-614:

Thanks, but I am quite familiar with the Florida East Coast steam roster. You misunderstood my question. I asked about the roster of U.S. Sugar. I knew that they had at least 3 ex-FEC 4-6-2's, since the 113, 148 and 153 all survived. What I was looking for was whether U.S. Sugar owned any OTHER ex-FEC 4-6-2's or, for that matter, any OTHER steamers besides ex-FEC Pacific's. Can you possibly help with that?

Les

I iz a idiot--

Anyway, I got curious myself.

Couldn't find too much (most of what's available on the net are recent photos), but I did come across this photograph, with what looks like an 0-6-0 numbered 204 and what may be another 4-6-2, numbered 112.

http://ufdc.ufl.edu/SW10000276/00001

VERY interesting photo! Especially with the train shed involved. I think that number 204 may be a bit more than an 0-6-0. Maybe a Mogul or 2-8-0, but that is strictly a guess on my part. Since U.S. Sugar never renumbered the 113, 148 or 153 from their FEC numbers, the idea that 112 is another former FEC 4-6-2 is a good one. And if they didn't renumber their second hand engines, I wonder if the Florida East Coast had a locomotive numbered 204? Or what other railroads down south, might have had such a numbered engine?

Thanks for the photo. I now know more than before, that's for sure!


Les

Thanks, Les,

I just remembered--there was a book out, "Speedway to Sunshine," by Seth Bramson, on the FEC--and the edition I saw in a local library had a complete locomotive roster in it.

Looks like you might want to scrounge up a copy for yourself!

The book in this illustration appears to be a first edition; the one I saw was a second edition, with additional information on things that had occurred since the original publication.

https://www.abebooks.com/Speedway-sunsh ... 1110305/bd

EDIT: The second edition, the one I saw:

http://www.heimburgerhouse.com/railfan_ ... to-sun.php