Railway Preservation News
https://www.rypn.org/forums/

Iron Horse Central
https://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=23937		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  steaminfo [ Fri Sep 21, 2007 6:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Iron Horse Central
Had the privilege today of visiting Iron Horse Central (www.ironhorsecentral.com) in Lindstrom, MN. This is a small, private museum built around a restored railroad depot. The organization owns three steam locomotives:

Dresser Trap Rock No. 4, an 0-4-0T which has been converted to a tender locomotive and which is gloriously operational on the museum's one mile loop of standard gauge track

Image

In the image below the 0-4-0 is preparing to depart the museum/depot with a flat car and a caboose. The fireman is Jeff Terry, Lineside Legacy columnist at Railfan & Railroad, and a Canadian Pacific engineer.

Image

Dresser Trap Rock #1, an 0-4-0T is shown below and undercover awaiting a full FRA restoration. The boiler and running gear are said to be in excellent condition.

Image

Last but not least is Northern Pacific L-4 0-6-0 No. 927, formerly the NP shop switcher at Brainerd, MN, and formerly a pigeon poop collector in Lum Park in Brainerd. Now being cosmetically restored at Iron Horse Central.

Image
Author:  John Bohon [ Sat Sep 22, 2007 8:27 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Iron Horse Central
This is a good looking tank to tender conversion. The tender appears to be real instead of homemade and the lack of journal box lids means it probably has roller bearings. Do you know what the tender came off of? I wish I could see this one.

John Bohon
Author:  steaminfo [ Sat Sep 22, 2007 8:56 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Iron Horse Central
John Bohon wrote:
This is a good looking tank to tender conversion. The tender appears to be real instead of homemade and the lack of journal box lids means it probably has roller bearings. Do you know what the tender came off of? I wish I could see this one.

John Bohon


Sure do! The tender came from Duluth & North Eastern No. 1. It actually does have friction bearings. You can't see 'em in the photo because of the low resolution, but the covers are open. The engineer was doing a walkaround and inspection at the time.

NOTE: I may be wrong about the journal box covers. When I get home in a couple of hours I'll look at a hi-res photo to make sure I was right (or wrong) about this

Regards,
Doug[/b]
Author:  steaminfo [ Sat Sep 22, 2007 8:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Iron Horse Central
John Bohon wrote:
This is a good looking tank to tender conversion. The tender appears to be real instead of homemade and the lack of journal box lids means it probably has roller bearings. Do you know what the tender came off of? I wish I could see this one.

John Bohon


Okay...I wasn't crazy (well not much). The journal box covers were open, see the image below cropped from a 10 megapixel version of the shot.

Image
Author:  caboose9 [ Sat Sep 22, 2007 11:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Iron Horse Central
steaminfo wrote, "The 0-4-0 is preparing to depart the museum/depot with a flat car and a caboose."


"A caboose", ah, the detail in that! Although, a railroad of origin and a number might have been a nice addition! ;<) Roger
Author:  steaminfo [ Sun Sep 23, 2007 3:20 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Iron Horse Central
caboose9 wrote:
"A caboose", ah, the detail in that! Although, a railroad of origin and a number might have been a nice addition! ;<) Roger


Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic No. 572, pictured below. The flat car was Soo Line, friction bearings, but I didn't get a number. The motive power in this image is a little Plymouth diesel-mechanical switcher, but I didn't get much (if any) background information about it, other than that the owner is a nice guy.

Image
Author:  steaminfo [ Sun Sep 23, 2007 3:27 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Iron Horse Central
And here's a shot of the little Plymouth switcher. They also have the last Baldwin ever built (a little diesel-electric built to a Whitcomb design) but for some reason I failed to get any photos of it. I guess I'll just have to go back.

Image
Author:  John Bohon [ Sun Sep 23, 2007 8:32 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Iron Horse Central
The whole operation reminds me a lot of Williams Grove, diesel critter and all. Even the friction bearing tender trucks are similar to those under 643. I suspect those folks are having to much fun this weekend. Could we be lucky enough to get a report on how the weekend went? What sort of engine was D&NE number 1?

Thanks for showing us this interesting operation.

John Bohon
Author:  steaminfo [ Sun Sep 23, 2007 9:21 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Iron Horse Central
John Bohon wrote:
The whole operation reminds me a lot of Williams Grove, diesel critter and all. Even the friction bearing tender trucks are similar to those under 643. I suspect those folks are having to much fun this weekend. Could we be lucky enough to get a report on how the weekend went? What sort of engine was D&NE number 1?

Thanks for showing us this interesting operation.

John Bohon


I'm not sure what D&NE No. 1 was. I remember the tender being in Cloquet in the 1950's minus its locomotive.

I was only there on Friday, but it seemed to go very well. The locomotive performed admirably, made lots of good noise on the 'big grade" on the far side of the 1.5 mile loop.

These are nice people. The Thompson brothers, and their sons are responsible for this operation and they are wonderful, entertaining people who are very proud of their operation.

There were a couple of busloads of kids who rode Friday, and they had a good time.

I'm going back the next time they do this.

Regards,
Doug
Author:  caboose9 [ Sun Sep 23, 2007 4:42 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Iron Horse Central
Thanks!

"Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic No. 572, pictured below."
Author:  dr dodge [ Mon Sep 24, 2007 12:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Iron Horse Central
I stopped by there also
Discussed history of the porter line with the owners
very nice people, with great documentation on their stuff

dr
Page 1 of 1 All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group
http://www.phpbb.com/