Here is the Luraville Locomotive, on display in Tallahassee. In the Suwanee River circa 1900 to 1979. A remarkable example of a very early 4-4-0

There is a C&O 4-4-0 inside of the sealed Church Hill Tunnel in Richmond, VA. It was being used in work train service in the tunnel on 10/2/1925, when the tunnel collapsed on the engine, several flat cars, and several workers. Two were killed, and are still entombed in the tunnel.

The engine 54 was built by Baldwin in 1903 for the Chicago, Cincinnati & Louisville Railway. C&O changed its number to 231. There is a picture of the engine in the video in the first link below.

This is a well-documented story with all the facts. Around a decade ago, there was a plan to unseal the tunnel and recover the engine. However, this proved to be wildly controversial. For one thing, it is in a big city with an entire neighborhood covering the ground surface above the tunnel. There is also a history of the tunnel being unstable because it was bored though wet clay and lined with brick. There have been instances of the cave-ins resulting in subsidence in the surface of overlying soil above. The project did begin with the boring into the tunnel from above with the intention of locating the locomotive and exploring soil conditions. But the cost of recovery was estimated at $5-million. That cost plus the controversy of the site being a tomb, and worry about the tunnel swallowing houses, led to the recovery effort being abandoned. So the sinister tunnel still sleeps under Church Hill today with the history it claimed on that day in 1925.

https://www.nbc12.com/2020/09/28/this-w ... least-men/

https://www.ble-t.org/pr/news/headline.asp?id=16670

Here I was thinking the Lauraville locomotive was the "phosphate" engine. Glad you set me straight. This engine is definitely old enough to be entirely wrought iron. Note the characteristic look of corroded wrought iron on the side rods... wrought iron has grain, and as the iron rusts away the inclusions look just like wood.

After his death Henry Sorensen's Vulcan went to the California State Railroad Museum along with most of his collection.

Dennis, first thing I noticed was the grain in the side rods. I remember a company advertising to buy wrought iron. You can still get it but it's all old production material and it ain't cheap. Maybe someone should restart an old iron furnace and produce artisanal iron. Too much work!

Steam shovel instead of locomotive, but........

https://www.facebook.com/groups/AOTTORC ... 013395723/

If you’re wondering what that steam shovel looked like originally, here’s a pic of a very similar, if not identical restored one: