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 Post subject: KCS #503 in jeopardy
PostPosted: Tue Feb 13, 2018 8:43 pm 

Joined: Sat May 07, 2016 1:12 am
Posts: 140
Sifting the interweb I found a news article from today about KCS #503. Apparently the articles choice of words makes me worry about the 503. She is in poor shape and needs a lot of TLC. Nobody cares or thinks anything good about it. I hope she doesn't go to the scrappers torch! Possibly the Texas State Railroad wouldn't mind another project? It would be suitable for their line.

http://www.panews.com/2018/02/13/with-l ... ngine-503/


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 Post subject: Re: KCS #503 in jeopardy
PostPosted: Tue Feb 13, 2018 10:48 pm 

Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2005 2:27 am
Posts: 569
Location: Winters, TX
That's disturbing. Maybe a letter writing campaign is in order to let them know that there is interest in the locomotive and that there are alternatives other than taking a wrecking ball to it (has a steam locomotive ever been "scrapped" by using a wrecking ball?).


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 Post subject: Re: KCS #503 in jeopardy
PostPosted: Tue Feb 13, 2018 11:21 pm 

Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm
Posts: 6397
For the record, number 503 is (was) actually a Louisiana & Arkansas Railway steamer. Although KCS had a controlling interest in the L&A, I don't think that the 4-6-0 was ever lettered for the Kansas City Southern when in service. Eventually the Ten-Wheeler was sold to a short line or industrial railroad. I seem to recall reading that these L&A 4-6-0's were pretty powerful examples of the wheel arrangement. I think sister number 509 also survives.

Les


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 Post subject: Re: KCS #503 in jeopardy
PostPosted: Tue Feb 13, 2018 11:49 pm 

Joined: Tue Jul 02, 2013 10:45 pm
Posts: 300
Update on L&A 509/403
Located at Cookeville, Tennessee.
The steam locomotive is a Baldwin 4-6-0 originally used by the Louisiana & Arkansas Railway, but lettered as Tennessee Central #509. This locomotive was built in 1913 as #403 (later renumbered #509) and operated by the L&A until being sold to the Louisiana & Midland Railroad in 1950. When retired, it was sold to a private collector, and then was sold to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga. In 2002, it was bought by the Friends of the Cookeville Depot Museum in 2002 and moved here.


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 Post subject: Re: KCS #503 in jeopardy
PostPosted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 12:02 am 

Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2010 8:21 pm
Posts: 534
Location: Danbury, CT
I’m familiar with the 503 as I was born and raised in the Port Arthur area. My father and grandfather both worked for KCS in Port Arthur.

By the time the city asked KCS for a steam engine to display, KCS had already scrapped their steam power. The 503 was a Louisiana and Arkansas engine. KCS purchased the 503 back from another company, lettered it for KCS, and sold it to the city. I remember for the longest time, there being a sign in the yard of a house on Procter St. that said “Save 503”. At least one individual led a campaign to restore the engine. She got a new paint job at point but I thinks that’s about it.

I highly doubt the city will do anything with the engine. They don’t have a good track record and the environment is horrible. The area has been in a major state of decline ever since Hurricane Rita in 2005. Things weren’t great prior to that either. KCS also donated the passenger depot to the city. They tore it down, only to build a replica about thirty years later. The city has also suffered the wrath of at least two other major hurricanes in recent years. Ike came in 2008 and most recently, Harvey.

For as much as I’d like to see the engine saved, I don’t see much hope for it. Its been in sad shape for the better part of forty years. I think the Gulf coast may be one of, if not the worst place to leave an engine outside on display. One only needs to make the short trip over to Galveston to understand.

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Last edited by Mount Royal on Wed Feb 14, 2018 7:21 am, edited 2 times in total.

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 Post subject: Re: KCS #503 in jeopardy
PostPosted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 12:39 am 

Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2015 12:30 am
Posts: 290
She doesn't look horrible in pictures.


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 Post subject: Re: KCS #503 in jeopardy
PostPosted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 1:12 am 

Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2005 2:27 am
Posts: 569
Location: Winters, TX
Randy, thanks for the history of the engine. I looked it up on steamlocomotive.info and was wondering why the KCS bought it in 1957 and then donated it a few months later.

I'd hate to see any steam locomotive scrapped at this late date. Surely something can be done with it. It's not like it's in the way of anything.


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 Post subject: Re: KCS #503 in jeopardy
PostPosted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 1:40 am 

Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm
Posts: 6397
Charlie wrote:


I'd hate to see any steam locomotive scrapped at this late date. Surely something can be done with it. It's not like it's in the way of anything.


Charlie -

Agree with that! Let's hope someone, or some organization, steps up and offers the Ten-Wheeler a home.

Les


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 Post subject: Re: KCS #503 in jeopardy
PostPosted: Wed Feb 14, 2018 10:54 pm 

Joined: Tue Jul 02, 2013 10:45 pm
Posts: 300
There are some reports that the city has already approved a contract to remove the asbestos from the steam locomotive. The payment is cash plus the scrap metal from the locomotive, meaning that it is to be cut up. The cause of the issue is an inspection after Harvey and a panic about the locomotive contaminating the city. The belief is that the entire locomotive is made of asbestos, so it must all go.


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 Post subject: Re: KCS #503 in jeopardy
PostPosted: Thu Feb 15, 2018 12:23 am 

Joined: Sun Jan 30, 2005 2:27 am
Posts: 569
Location: Winters, TX
Well, that answers my other question as to why the city was doing asbestos abatement on something they planned to get rid of. Short of making a deal with the contractor, this seems like a lost cause. What a shame.

Between this and all the steam cranes that are being cut up, this board is getting downright depressing.


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 Post subject: Re: KCS #503 in jeopardy
PostPosted: Thu Feb 15, 2018 9:46 am 

Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2010 6:22 pm
Posts: 275
Bartman-TN wrote:
There are some reports that the city has already approved a contract to remove the asbestos from the steam locomotive. The payment is cash plus the scrap metal from the locomotive, meaning that it is to be cut up. The cause of the issue is an inspection after Harvey and a panic about the locomotive contaminating the city. The belief is that the entire locomotive is made of asbestos, so it must all go.


How did this happen unnoticed?
If this is what's going on, some calls are in order - IF somebody is ready to move that unfortunate locomotive!

CD


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 Post subject: Re: KCS #503 in jeopardy
PostPosted: Thu Feb 15, 2018 10:35 am 

Joined: Thu May 21, 2015 9:33 am
Posts: 194
Location: Liberty Hill, SC
We have reached out to the city to try and get a contact for the company doing the work. I will share it here if I get something productive. At the very least hopefully we can save the appliances.

Crying shame this happened so quickly without any apparent effort to contact museums or at least offer it for sale etc. I fear this might become a more common ending to park engines as the leaders of the communities the engines are located in get younger. They don't remember when old #9 ran in town, and to them it is just a dirty old train taking up space and dwindling resources.

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 Post subject: Re: KCS #503 in jeopardy
PostPosted: Thu Feb 15, 2018 11:01 am 

Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2010 8:21 pm
Posts: 534
Location: Danbury, CT
Again, as a Port Arthur native, I can’t say as I’m surprised. There isn’t much left to the “old sections” of the city, including downtown. There are a few historic homes, a community college, and the Museum of the Gulf Coast, which may not be open anymore. Many sections of town including what used to be the old main drag of Procter St look like a ghost town and have for quite some time. Many residents and most businesses moved further inland away from Sabine Lake, the Intracoastal Waterway, and the Neches River. A series of hurricanes have accelerated the decline as well. “FEMA Blue” roofs still grace many buildings (mostly abandoned now) dating back to Rita in 2005 and Ike in 2008. Port Arthur has suffered from major flooding from three recent hurricanes. That’s not to mention the other storms that 503 has weathered since being placed in Bryan Park.

My opinion would have seen the engine moved to the site of the reconstructed depot. I don’t think it would be in any better condition than it is now, but at least it’d be closer to live rail, providing more options for transport out of town.

If someone is going to save it, you better move quick. At this point, the city will be happy to see it go.

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Randy Patterson
RMNE/NAUG


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 Post subject: Re: KCS #503 in jeopardy
PostPosted: Thu Feb 15, 2018 12:29 pm 

Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 11:17 pm
Posts: 321
Location: Houston, TX
In a conversation with the interim city manager this morning, the city was told that it could cost up to $500,000 to remove the asbestos, so they have transferred title to the locomotive to a contractor who has until March 6 to clear the site and remove the locomotive in what ever way that he chooses. From what he told me, the only historical organization or railroad organization that the city talked to was the Texas Transportation Museum in San Antonio, and the interim city manager could not find a record of what they told the city, only that they had contacted them.


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 Post subject: Re: KCS #503 in jeopardy
PostPosted: Thu Feb 15, 2018 12:34 pm 

Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 11:17 pm
Posts: 321
Location: Houston, TX
The other thing that he told me was that this effort to either scrap or remove the locomotive has been going on for almost a year now at the local level, but apparently no one in the preservation field has heard a thing about it until last week. The whole short fuse has been precipitated by an order from the Texas DEQ demanding asbestos removal and environmental abatement by March 6. It was also apparent from his conversation that the contract with the company responsible for the removal was also signed quite some time ago as well, but again, this one apparently was done pretty much very quietly.


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