I recently bought some old Kodachrome vacation slides because they included some railroad slides. Included were six shots of the late CO&E steam era. They're not great because the camera was probably pretty cheap and they are "vacation" shots.

Three more:

I forgot to say that the mounts are all marked Oct 75.

1975 is about right. #17 is not yet in service. The depot burned a year or two later, and they quit passenger service. #17 went into freight service, and #5 was out of service by the time I visited in 1980.

I'm curious if there's anyone still around who can give details as to how the CO&E came to own #17, which was a fairly new(1946?) locomotive built by the Canadian Locomotive Co. for the Roberval & Saguenay RR in Canada. The R&S retired the locomotive -- still serviceable --around 1970, and it was sold to John E. Thompson of Monee, IL. It's my understanding that CN at that time agreed to ship the locomotive to the USA on its own wheels, but someone, somehow, forgot to release the locomotive brakes, resulting in significant damage to the locomotive and its wheels, so much so that the locomotive could no longer continue on its own wheels, and could not clear the tunnels on the Detroit River on flatcar. Anyone have any more information?

R&S sold the 17 to John E. Thompson; about mid-1972, it was shipped south out of the Saguenay Region on the CNR. The driver brakes were dragged and the tires loosened, and 17 was set out at Lac Edouard. 17 was eventually hauled back to CNR's Jonquiere roundhouse before the winter set in. I looked at 17 on (US) Election Day 1972; a group I was associated with in New Jersey (Iron Horse Tours) decided to lease 17 from JET.

In late May 1973, I traveled back to Jonquiere and worked with two guys from Texas (Wayne Weiss and Dave ??) to re-set and shim the driver tires for another go at getting 17 out of the area. At the same time, some other work was done on the engine, including some air brake work and repacking the driver grease cellars. The rest of the journals were repacked as well. It was an interesting experience working in non-English-speaking Quebec with two Texans and two New Yorkers, especially the emergency room visit right from the shop in greasy bibs to the Hospital run by nuns.

A month or two later, 17 was at CNR's Pt. St. Charles shop in Montreal, where IHT made one more inspection and 17 headed south on the CV towards East New London, CT. While at Pt. St Charles, we were given a tour of the 6060, being overhauled for excursion service. The new nose cone had just arrived the previous day and was on a skid in front of the 6060.

IHT rented a stall in the CV roundhouse in E New London and futzed around with 17 for about a year. A hydro showed the firebox to be in terrible condition, and the thing was really plumb worn-out in so many ways: for example, loose crown brasses, rotten tender tank coal space, shall we go on? The stoker engine did run nicely on shop air, though. IHT let the lease lapse; JET sold 17 to the CO&E in 1974, and they came to take it away.

Howard P.
Older But No Wiser, CT