At the Ford Museum today in Dearborn. This photo at Greenville, PA, October 1956.

http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?n ... +le154.jpg

This is the engine that was cosmetically restored by IRM as part of the trade for our 4-4-0 which was deemed surplus at Dearborn. A lot of the finished loco was wrapped in plastic and then shipped on its own wheels from Illinois to Michigan.

Any bets on that happening on today's railroads?

Bob Kutella

No offense to Bob or IRM, but I always wondered about this trade. The B&LE engine has no history in Michigan, and the 4-4-0 most definitely did.
While I do not want to drag up old business here, the deaccession of the DSR Peter Witt (the only other one in existence) as well as a GORGEOUS Detroit & Mackinac wood-sided bag never made much sense either.

In their defense, they did save a neat piece of Detroit/ Michigan RR history through a bit of a battle with Conrail, so that the Detroit River Tunnel Steam Crane, designed to work in the close confines of the MCRR tunnel, as well as a good deal of other D&M equipment.

Not that "The Henry Ford", as it is now a bit (IMHO) pompously called, is totally a Michigan entity, but I never have quite understood their collecting philosophy, nor there somewhat ambigious mission statement. Again, I'm not attacking IRM --- they at least are guaranteeing the safety of two of these pieces, and hopefully one day, restoration.

By the way, you guys did a gorgeous job on the B&LE engine --- I'd love to talk to those who did it, as it is cosmetic restoration at its finest, IMHO.

TJG

What is the status of this engine? The post says that a cometic restoration was done. Does anybody have any current pictures? What kind of condition is it in mechanically? It's been years since I've been up there, and quite honestly was in to much awe of the Allegeny to remember anything else. . ..

Thanks!

Ryan

I was not involved in either the loco trade or the fact that we got the DSR Peter Witt. So it is hard to defend any speculation on us vs. them. But easy fodder for questions, nevertheless.

Our steam department did the work and I agree it was a first class job as I looked it over before it left. That crew was headed by Tom Schneider.

At the time it set back our other work considerably and there were some critics of why so complete and careful of a job was done. But a deal is a deal, as they say, and how many chances were we to have to acquire a 4-4-0 at this point in history?

Cosmetic only since no delving was done into the boiler or other appliances, but some running gear and air brake work was needed to get it accepted by the railroads for the move.

Bob Kutella

Actually, the DSR Peter Witt sold to IRM (#3865) is not the only one of its kind in existence. An identical car from the same order, DSR #3876, is owned by the Ohio Railway Museum in Columbus, OH. That car is currently tarped and in dead storage.

I understood the reason for the trade was because the Ford Museum has no example of a Consolidation, the most popular of the steam locomotive wheel arrangements, and IRM had no example of a 4-4-0.

Frank-
Sorry --- the ORM car was the "other" car I was talking about. Sorry about the confusing English there ;- ) With the renewed interest in getting a structure and concentrating on their traction collection, one hopes that the ORM DSR Peter Witt would be a likely candidate for a full restoration, although I know that it had some serious issues where the carbody met the frame --- although the last time I saw it up close was in the mid-1990's.

TJ