Many years ago I heard a story that the Museum of Transportation in Kirkwood, MO had a boxcar full of American Locomotive Company steam locomotive mechanical drawings that were moldy and beyond salvage. Is this true, and if so, do they still exist?

I've never heard this story. Of course there is over 60 years of history at MOT and who knows. I'll ask if anyone there now can shed any light on it. They do have thousands of ACF drawings, but those are in fine shape. Waxed linen can resist all kinds of neglect, and that was before they were donated.

I've checked with the MOT staff and they consider this to be an "urban legend" that is entirely untrue. One of the folks there started at the place as a kid in the late 1950s, so their memories go back far enough to be considered reliable.

Many thanks, Ron for checking on this. It certainly pays to go to the source!

~K.R. Bell

Sort of on topic still, now that you guys have answered your question about the MOT and the drawings not being there. The MOT was a great prospect, and it had a decent chance for some sucess. It certainly needed to be looked into completly and you did that and a few others have recently also, so its well investigated now. Good work!

IMHO, and based on years of searching, the only drawings that escaped the great ALCO Steam Locomotive Archive Burning were; some of the photos, some of the erecting card drawings, a few other random bits of everythgin, but not much of any category was spared, all categories suffered 90%+ losses.

The only complete sets of drawings and or information for any specific locomotive that escaped the ALCO infernos are the blueprint sets that were already gone before the fires, and these were the sets owned by an individual RR company. These owners also had to request and pay for the extra set of blueprints to be delivered with their new ALCO Locomotive, and not all owners did this! That set then had to survive; mergers, sales to other roads, and the travel to the new road, and always had to survive roundhouse fires at whatever rr they lived at through the years. Still the sets had to survive all these years in an old roundhouse and backshop waiting untill the present to be found, and hopefully resacued by someone that cares about them. That all happening and the sets being found in decent quality are so rare. It does happen though.

I recently learned (even though its still hush hush to any outsiders, and I'm an outsider in this club and not supposed to know) that one of my top NG picks for an ALCO steam locomotive blueprint set has been found, and its in perfect condition! It was in an archive of the company that owned the RR that bought the locomotives back in the 1920's, and the drawings have been well taken care of ever since. Out of 100 other sets found, less than 2% would have been kept as well as these sets were. I and many other men have been searching and searching for these sets for decades. Finally locating them is a rare and wonderful gift, now we have to see about getting copies of them for a reasonable cost.

I consider the chance of one great ALCO archive ever being found to not be a reality any longer, but like you guys, I sure wish someone would prove me completely wrong, and tomorrow is not soon enough to make me (gladly) eat crow!

As this thread has moved over to surviving ALCO drawings I should mention that MOT does have drawings for the "Big Boy" in its collection. I can't say it is a complete set but there are several very large ones including a general arrangement drawing. So for all of you with dreams of building your own you can get started with these. And no, it costs money to make copies so they won't be free.

All of the Big Boy bluprints (1200+), and the last 4-8-4 the #8444 blueprints can be purchased from the UPHS for less than $50.00 on DVD (yes thats fifty dollars), for the entire archive.

They also have a Switcher blueprint set and are workgin on some parts drawings that should be incredible when they are released.

Here at PSRM in Campo,CA, we own an ALCO 2-8-2T (1929), Coos Bay #11. Georgia Pacific, successor to Coos Bay lumber, donated the locomotive to us in 1967. Just two years ago, Plum Creek Timber, successor on that property to Georgia Pacific, donated us a complete set of blueprints for #11. One of their foresters found them in an old building on the property that they were doing a safety inspection on. There are about 650 sheets, ranging in size from 8" x 10" to 24" x 60." All are stamped, "ALCO Blueprint Room, December 20, 1929." Most are in quite good condition. Along with the prints is a "card record," an 18 page booklet that states which version of each drawing belongs to our locomotive.

As time and finances permit, we plan on having them scanned, and having DVD copies available.

Jim Baker, Steam Foreman, PSRM

That those drawings have finally made it to a conservator has to have happened at incredibly great odds. Many coincidences, and good luck must have befallen them through the years, and some very thoughtful people that lived many decades ago had to have taken care to protect them. The caretakers must have known that they were extrememly valuable to us and to future generations, and they are very valuable. The drawings are not really valuable monitarily, but they are valuabel in that they are able to share thier information with us about that past and about a few of our favorite topics; RR's and steam locomotives, and in this case medium sized ALCO tank locos.

Its sounds like you already know how valuable these drawings are to future generations and also to quite a few people in our own time that might want to build a miniature of that exact locomotive in some "ride in" or "ride on" scale.

The ALCO 2-8-2T (1929), Coos Bay #11 being an ALCO, being a tank loco, from a short line, and not comming from a large RR that saved all its drawings, all contribute to this a being really, really rare find. The big ALCO's are well documented, the smaller ones are not documented much at all, so its great that those drawings made it to this time, where we value them, and can take care of them and use what they have to offer us.

It is a fairly long and complex story as to how PSRM acquired the ALCO drawings for Coos Bay #11. I wrote up a several page article for PSRM's newsletter about it. If anyone is interested in seeing a copy, let me know.

Jim Baker, PSRM

Hi All

The Lake State Railway Historical Assn. Has recently acquired a large collection of drawings for Chicago North Western steam locomotives.

Tim

Tim,

C&NW had some 3' gauge RR's, do you know if any of the drawings are of that Narrow Gauge equipment?

I'm not very familiar with the C&NW 3' gauge, but there are a few Wisconsin NG enthusiasts that could educate us both on the subject, maybe they will chime in here.