On Tuesday June 1st, the Niagara Railway Museum finally moved our 1920 ALCo 0-4-0ST from Uptergrove (outside Orillia Ontario) to our new facility at Fort Erie, Ont. We ahve been waiting to make this move for 4 yrs now, and finally, with our new home cleaned up, we made this move happen. Delivered to the Hydro Electric Power Commission at Niagara Falls, #46 & 47 were used along with a host of other steam tank & tender engines in the construction of the Queenston-Chippawa Project, building the power canals and such that helped feed Sir Adam Beck Generating Station #1. It was a quick trip to the shop, and the engine was unloaded safely on the newly constructed track outside the shop. Villeneuve's Steel Wheels of Sudbury hauled the locomotive on a trailer designed specifically for hauling railway equipment. We used a front end loader at the shop to unload the engine, and to move her inside the shop. June 1st marked the first time in well over 30 or 40 yrs that 46 spent the night indoors.

This coming week we hope to have a stablemate for her in the form of our Plymouth MDT40t diesel, used by Ontario Hydro in the construction of Adam Beck G.S. #2. This engine is close to operational, and will be the first restoration project tackled as we need an operating locomotive to move equipment around. Later in June we are also planning to add an electric locomotive which also worked on the Queenston-Chippawa Project, alongside our #46. Ex-INCo #102 (nee-HEPC E-7) is stored in Capreol, and owned (for now) by the Northern Ontario Railway Museum. The NRM has them to hold off scrapping it, and we will be acquiring the engine for our own museum. This will give the NRM a unique display of 3 locomotives, 3 different types of propulsion, all used on 2 of the largest and most well known power projects in Canadian history.

For more information on the Niagara Railway Museum and the steam engine move, please visit our website at http://www.nfrm.ca and http://www.nfrm.ca/news.php

Thanks for posting. Are there plans to restore the steamer to operation?

Ken -

Congrats on getting # 46 moved. It is an interesting engine with that pump located on the face of the smokebox. When I first saw your report, I thought that the 0-4-0 had side tanks (ST) but I see from the photos that she is a saddle tank. Your designation of the engine as a 0-4-0ST instead of just an 0-4-0T, is interesting, and certainly not wrong. Unfortunately, saddle tank and side tank both have the same first initials. So describing them easily, is just a bit confusing since ST could mean either. In J. David Conrad's books "The Steam Locomotive Directory of North America", J. David got around this by describing engines with saddle tanks (like # 46) with just the letter "T". And locomotives with side tanks with "ST". You can, of course, describe the 46 as you wish.

BTW, the are a couple of other variations of tanks on steam locomotives including rear tank (RT), split saddle tanks (SS) and well tanks (WT) but of course, these have their own indiviidual letter designations.

Again, glad your group was able to get number 46 "home".

Les

As of right now, there are no plans to restore her to operation. Of course, if someone were to come up with the money, we would certainly consider it. it is a very large compressor for that size of locomotive, but is original. There is a similar locomotive we are looking at, a bit newer, same 0-4-0saddle tank, but the compressor is half the size, and mounted to the side of the smokebox door. Work has already begun on the restoration. It will be a big job, and it will require a new cab as they had originally left the coal in the bunkers, which got wet, which in turn rotted out both sides of the rear of the cab.

Ken

Which engine is that?

At this time, I'm not saying anything. Only that we've been talking to someone about it. Not local, but still something we'd like to have.

Ken