Some time ago, the W&OV No. 1 was moved from the Mid-Continent Railway Museum to Black River Falls, WI where it is on display at Hoffman Construction's headquarters.

Today I drove the 150 miles to Black River Falls to see the locomotive, and was quite impressed by the display. To begin with, Hoffman Construction's office building is built to resemble a railroad depot, show in the photo below:



The 4-6-0 sits at the head of a train consisting of a business car, a parlor car and a flat car. The train is show below:



The business car is labeled as being of Nickel Plate origin and the truss-framed parlor car is said to be of Rock Island origin.



And last, but not least, the locomotive, beautifully restored:

Any info on the flat car? It appears to resemble the type favored by circus trains with the wide side sills.


Bob Kutella

Here's a better shot of the flat car. I'm sorry to say it didn't occur to me to photograph the reporting marks on the flat car.

'

Just a minor quibble........it's Warren & Ouachita Valley.

Jim Tatum.

Fixed it on the website...and here, I hope.

Yessir, fixed. For those curious about pronunciation, it's "Wash-e-taw" or "Wash-e-tah", depending on whether you're an Arkansas native or a furriner.

Jim Tatum.

It is a circus flat. It was aquired from Circus World Museum.

The "Parlor Car" is indeed Rock Island. It was a coach that the Rock did up as a parlor car at the same time they back-dated the #1 (and changed it's identity to that of a Rock Island loco).