Pentrex Russell....Please!!!
844 was never retired, but was used in snow melting service for a year or so, which kept it on the roster, but it didn't run much revenue service during that time.

If you all are going to count these little shortlines, then surely the D&RGW engines fit in there since they ran continually through today, and yes they pulled some freight to Silverton although some of it was horses to the ranch and other stuff. Like one guy says depends on the criteria for this thread. Guess anything after 1960 was really on borrowed time!
Greg Scholl

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Dave, you really know how to stir it up, don't you? ;-)

Let's review: again starting with Saint David of Morgan, steam was essentially dead on the main line in 1955 as a percentage of ton-miles. Still in limited use on a few lines, but everyone except N&W was rushing for the diesel catalog.

By 1960 N&W and UP were done. That left lots of little common-carrier short lines, which slowly fell by the wayside. Among the more celebrated were the Magma Arizona and ET&WNC (1967), Mississippian (1968, and the aforementioned M&G and Graham County (1970), and the Reader (1970).

If we're talking common carrier, interchange, standard-gauge, regularly-scheduled (not necessarily daily, but at least tri-weekly), with well-maintained power, then the above represents a fair "death watch." Northwestern S&W (1980) was a switching operation that eked a little more out of engines it had bought for scrap and would go on to cut up, and Edgemoor and Manetta (1978) fired up that godawful kettle of theirs only once or twice a month. (And I can't imagine how they got loads over that track.)

Extend your scope to fireless engines and Burlington Northern operated two crosstie plants with them into the mid-1980s, and the NARCO 0-6-0 last operated in 1992.

Narrow gauge: ignore the seasonal nature of the Silverton branch in the 1970s, and it is essentially "unbroken," as Charles Bradshaw purchased a Common Carrier in 1981. (Granted it didn't get much interchange after 1968, but supplies to the dude ranches still qualified as "freight.")

Personally, I mark the passing of the Mobile & Gulf as the "end," if only because that's the one I saw as a very young kid. But the E&M probably deserves the distinction more than any other.

JAC

Hate to correct you, John, but Mr. Long was still hauling freight in Southwest Arkansas until well into 1973, not 1970. I still maintain that the last standard guage, all steam, common carrier, shortline RR was the Possum Trot Line.

> Hate to correct you, John, but Mr. Long was
> still hauling freight in Southwest Arkansas
> until well into 1973,

Typo on my end - noticed just AFTER pressing the "post" button, of course.

> I still maintain that the last standard guage,
> all steam, common carrier, shortline RR was the
> Possum Trot Line.

Edgmoor & Manetta was listed in the "Official Guide" offering freight service (good evidence that it was a common carrier), and no. 5 operated for sure in 1977. I remember reading a news item on its aborted "last run" - the Federal man showed up and condemned the engine, sometime in late 77 or early 78, I believe on a day they planned to operate (sounds like a tip-off, huh?). E&M shut down because of that if I remember correctly, though they were still listed in the Guide in '79.

So it all depends on your criteria. Scheduled service? Reader. Last ugly gasp, a la Dave's original post? E&M gets my vote.

JAC

> > Edgmoor & Manetta was listed in the
> "Official Guide" offering freight
> service (good evidence that it was a common
> carrier), and no. 5 operated for sure in
> 1977. I remember reading a news item on its
> aborted "last run" - the Federal

******************
It must have been a STATE inspector as the E&M had ceased being under ICC some time earlier even tho it stayed in the Official Guide.

Reader was the LAST regular common carrier steam RR.

> man showed up and condemned the engine,
> sometime in late 77 or early 78, I believe
> on a day they planned to operate (sounds
> like a tip-off, huh?). E&M shut down
> because of that if I remember correctly,
> though they were still listed in the Guide
> in '79.

> So it all depends on your criteria.
> Scheduled service? Reader. Last ugly gasp, a
> la Dave's original post? E&M gets my
> vote.

> JAC


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oldtimetrains@rrmail.com

Mr. Kennedy is correct. We had this same discussion over on Tom Gear's Steam Railroading board a few months back. After I had stated that the E&M was the last all-steam common carrier in the US, I proved myself wrong when I dug up a lengthy article about the E&M in an issue of William S. Young's RAILROADING magazine. According to the article E&M's little 0-4-0T 5 operated until 1975, but the E&M hadn't been a common carrier in the eyes of the ICC for a number of years.

Yes, the Reader RR was the last all-steam common carrier in the US. Although the Reader's mixed train carried genuine revenue freight, it catered to the tourist business as well. If you are looking for the last common carrier US steam railroad "THAT IN NO WAY WAS EVER A TOURIST OPERATION", then I believe that honor would go to the Mobile & Gulf which retired its 2-6-0 97 in 1970.

I guess the operation of the 0-6-0 Fireless Cookers at NARCO and Pennsylvania Power & Light were the last industrial steam locomotives in use in the US (who was last NARCO or PP&L??). I had also asked on Tom's board if there were any known still-active fireless cookers tucked away in some US industrial operation, even on just stand by use. I guess they all have been retired by now--or someone would know about it!

Regards,
JIm Robinson

Steam is steam whether or not its fireless, small tank engines, or whatever! I regret to tell you all that it doesn't matter what everyone's opinion is, what engine was the last is up to the history books; However, it would seem right to put all of this together in some kind of database if you really want to find out which one really was the last revenue steamer in the U.S.! I know that there are several that survived into the 90's, with the exception of 844, which still is running. Any Ideas on the latest active steam in the U.S., that wasn't retired until the end and worked for freight only?

Spencer Shops
cookiemonster@rrmail.com

> I had also asked on
> Tom's board if there were any known
> still-active fireless cookers tucked away in
> some US industrial operation, even on just
> stand by use. I guess they all have been
> retired by now--or someone would know about
> it!

I wondered about this as well. What came out of the discussion?

Based on the little research I have done;

* One of Potomac Electric's fireless engines went to a museum; but I have not accounted for the other that was stored at the plant on the edge of Washington D.C.

* The fireless cooker at the power plant in Indianoplis, IN was transferred to a musuem outside of town.

* The Alabama Power & Light engines are also retired; one is still on display at the power plant in Gadsden, AL.

What happened to the BN fireless engines from the tie plant?

Any others?

Surviving World Steam Locomotives
james1@pernet.net