My mother found this while cleaning out. Louisville Courier-Journal, November 6, 1960. When was the last IC steam trip?

This event was actually just discussed on Facebook the other day. The locomotive pictured, 4-8-2 No. 2613, was briefly loaned to the L&N for this particular event because the L&N no longer owned any serviceable steam locomotives. After the event the 2613 was returned to the IC, saw a brief second career in freight service, and was finally scrapped after a failed preservation attempt.

Thomas

As I recall, Editor David P. Morgan of TRAINS stated in the pages of the magazine that IC 4-8-2 #2613 deserved to be saved. It's the only engine that I remember Morgan advocating for preservation. Unfortunately, the IC did end up scrapping the locomotive.

Les

Actually, IC 2613 pulled three excursions, all out of Louisville. The first was on the L&N Centennial run to Nashville, TN on Oct 24, 1959. Then, on May 14, 1960 she pulled a round trip from Louisville to Paducah and, finally, another round trip to Dawson Springs, Ky on Oct. 2, 1960.

I was aboard all three runs and rode 2613's cab on the Oct 2, 1960 trip between Central City and Dawson Springs.

There is film from the L&N run in two of our videos, "Reflections of the L&N" Volumes 1 and 2 and film from the IC runs in "Mid-American Glory ICRR".

Also, Louisville railfan William Bauer recorded the L&N trip from the baggage car at the head of that train and the best of those recordings are in our audio CD "L&N Centennial with IC 2613".
-Jim Herron
Herron Rail Video

Here is another photo from the article.

Not a recommended angle these days, but a cool picture never-the-less:

https://railpictures.net/photo/34693

Did David P. Morgan ride the L&N Centennial trip on October 24, 1959? I can't see him, a son of Louisville, missing it. He did ride the first Reading Company Iron Horse Ramble the next day from Wayne Junction (Philadelphia) to Shamokin.

An interesting weekend. N&W 611 pulled the last N&W J-powered trip that Saturday, October 24, 1959.

Phil Mulligan

One of the "Ones that got away"..... seems there were a few engines that were likely to be saved, and deserved to be saved, at the end of steam, and ICRR 2613 certainly is in the top 5 of that list.

Howard P.

Up there with the B&O EM-1 scrapped in 1961, and the C of G Big Apple.

Didn't the Southern RR also have a few other Ps-4s or other passenger engines sat aside in case a city wanted them for display? No one did, so scrapped.

Speaking of which, you motivated me to do a search. This link shows a low resolution photo of #659 at Butler, PA on May 28, 1961
http://sbiii.com/rr2.html

What was it doing there? Stationary boiler?

You know what is funny, I think the track is still there:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Butler,+Pennsylvania,+USA/@40.856721,-79.891401,342m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x883362e995b175c9:0x889f1f7d7d75fb67!8m2!3d40.8611755!4d-79.8953328

I've heard that story as well.....but remember that would be 1953. Whatever preservation movement we managed to string together certainly didn't have its act together that early in the game. A couple more years later, and maybe things would have been different.
Kevin

We are getting off topic but at the top of the list of steamers that should have been saved but got away would be one of the NYC's Hudsons and Niagaras. At least we still have a Hudson tender.

The "should have" list is quite long...

Topping that would be some of the most "iconic" locomotives that were very widely known, likely with an NYC hudson at the very top. A whole other debate as to it should be streamlined or not lol...

I kinda feel it’s relevant considering that 2613 was a locomotive that was nearly saved, but didn’t make it. Much like the EM-1 and C of G 451.

It’s not really about locomotives that *should’ve* been saved like a Hudson or a T1 or something. It’s about locomotives that had a good chance of actually being saved, but either efforts came too late or the circumstances just didn’t allow it even if the locomotive (s) were set aside to be preserved

The EM-1 was supposed to be saved but a miscommunication led it to be sadly cut up. And the story of 451 is even weirder.