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This 1920 Baldwin has a quite convoluted history. The "Gospel According To J. David Conrad" reports it was built W.B. Harbison Lumber as their #18 at DeFuniak Springs, Florida, then to Baghdad Land & Lumber Co. (operators of the Florida & Alabama RR)at Baghdad, Florida. Sold 1940 to Mobile River Saw Mill Co at Mt. Vernon, Alabama; sold 1960 to Fred Steck of Reese, MI and leased in May 1965 to the Cadillac & Lake City RR; sold 1969 to the Dry Gulch Junction tourist operation in Wytheville, Va.; in 1977 it was sold to King Wilson for his White Sulphur Springs & Yellowstone Park operation of a leased Milwaukee line at WSS, Montana (where it occasionally hauled freight as well) as "Montana Central 18." After closure of the line in 1980, it was then sold to the aforementioned Paul Pellet in May 1985 and was serviceable at the Pellet feed mill in Atlantic, Iowa.

I recall at some point the loco was written up in an early issue of Railfan by a fan who blundered upon it on a freight turn on the Milwaukee branch in the late 1970s, by following the coal smoke.......

More on the WSS&YP:

https://www.harlowtonmuseum.org/wssyp.php

Nice locomotive.
Look at the first photo when finished at Baldwin, lettered for Florida & Atlantic #18.

Surprisingly the twin sister #19 (difference #18 coal, #19 oil) also survives as display in Snyder, TX.
See second pic.

So I'll pose the question here too. If the goal here is operation, why not look at what was already on site? Is 1355 just so worn out it would take cubic tons of dollars to get to serviceable condition? Or did that the belpaire firebox on it raised some eyebrows? I don't know anything about 1355 other than it exists.

Dylan -

I seem to recall that an effort was started to get the 1355 running. Perhaps they ran into some major problems. Sure would have been nice to have had a Great Northern steamer running. Oh well...!

Les

If I may offer - Every steam locomotive requires cubic tons of dollars to restore to operation. Some merely take more than others..........mld

The Sioux City Museum had a different website back then prior to their rebranding efforts, and I recall on that old site they said that something along the lines of “in 2005, the operational restoration on 1355 became strictly a cosmetic restoration”.

I’d imagine it’s for a variety of factors: funds, where it could run, what it could haul, among other things. A big thing to me though would be that for many years, 1355 has been the only steamer in the collection. When you have that tucked away under restoration, likely unavailable for public viewing for several years, it’s going to hurt the number of visitors coming to your museum because a steam locomotive is such a draw. Boxcars and a couple of Hiawatha passenger cars simply aren’t as impressive to the general public

Greetings:
One interesting "issue" with No. 18 is that some time before Fred bought it, someone had removed the superheater units so it ran on just saturated steam.
The Cadillac & Lake City tried to burn wood in it but it needed to be re-fueled at each end of their line. I don't know if it had grates for coal or wood, but the C&LC's other steam locomotive (now owned by Skip Lichter and known as Polson No.2) burned oil.
Perhaps Alex Huff might remember more about it.
J.David

I visited that museum around 3 years ago and they said there was never a plan to get the #1355 under steam again, which is unfortunate as it is a really beautiful locomotive. They said they only have about 1/4 mile of track and didn't think it would be worth all the time and money to get it running again. They also said there was few people willing to work on it in that small city, and the few that were willing only had only basic mechanical skills and were quite old. They do on occasion bring the locomotive out on the turntable using another locomotive.

The 18 was leased by the C&LC while the #2 was leased for a movie filming in western Illinois,. It's title is "Gaily, gaily."

The 18 was gone by the time I went to work for the C&LC in 1970. I heard stories about the 18 from Joe Rogers, owner of the C&LC's 750 hp Lima-Hamilton #25 while we were both in Vietnam.

Joe told me the 18 was fired with the scrap wood from a pallet mill located next to the track near the Sandstown wye about a mile south of Lake City. He said it was normal to stop midway to North Cadillac to build up steam. He did fire the 18 on occasion. I recall Cliff Lenten, Chairman, saying toward the end the engine was fired with a heel of coal at the rear of the firebox along with the slab wood. The coal made life a little easier for the fireman.

Alex Huff

Alex, would you happen to know what the other locomotive used in the film is?

I have also never seen photos of the ferry move of #2 from Owosso to Chicago? Do any exist?

Greetings:

My apologies for contributing to "thread drift"!

The other locomotive used in "Gaily, Gaily" (a comedy based on a book by Ben Hecht) was C&O 4-6-0 No. 377. It was not steamed for the movie, but shortly thereafter went to the Toledo, Lake Eire & Western tourist railroad where it was operated for a couple of years. It then went to the B&O Museum, where it remains today.

I believe that at least some of the passenger cars used were rented from Strasburg Rail Road.

The movie was shot in and around Chicago's Grand Central Station, a beautiful structure with a huge classic arched train shed behind the head house. As I recall, that station was used by the Baltimore & Ohio, Pere Marquette, Soo Line and several other railroads. The station wasn't closed for the filming, the Gaily scenes were shot on the east side of the train shed while regular operations continued in the middle and on the west side. Since the station was open, you could go in and watch, which I did with Richard Jensen who knew all of the B&O guys. His 5629 was based out of the B&OCT Robie Street roundhouse for several years.

After the station was torn down the site was a parking lot for many years.

J.David

J. David -

Thanks for the reminder about C&O Ten-Wheeler # 377 being used in the movie "Gaily, Gaily." The 4-6-0 was actually built in 1902 for the Cincinnati, Richmond & Muncie as their number 108 and through various corporate changes became Chicago, Cincinnati & Louisville 108, then Chesapeake & Ohio of Indiana #1108 and then back to #108 on the C&OofI. She has always been of interest because she most likely ran through North Judson, Indiana on many occasions, where our museum is located. In fact, our passenger carrying trains run over the old CR&M/CC&L/C&OofI/C&O right of way.

Les Beckman (Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum/North Judson, IN)

I rode behind C&O 377 on the tourist operation in Toledo. The train also included the restored C&O combine 409 that now also in the B&O collection.

Wesley