Here's a photo of the equipment there:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9394028@N06/2322959996/

Looks like what is probably an 0-4-0T, a single dome tank car and a wood side door caboose of unknown heritage. Some other equipment too, but not clear. Anyone know what the story is of this equipment and the plans for it? BTW, looks as if someone got a bargain on green paint and just slapped it on in various places!

Les

Les:
Just a guess, but the lcomotive appears to an ALCO, probably from Dr. Stanley Groman's "Rail City" collection at Sandy Pond, NY that was auctioned off many years ago...
J.David

Hi Les,

The caboose is GM&O 2745H and the owner is Dan Millard, North Broad & Blackburn Sts. There appears to be a total lack of TLC involved with this equipment!

Cheers, Roger

I've gotten some additional information on the equipment pictured at Carlinville, from a couple of different sources. First of all, the equipment apparently did NOT indicate a rail musuem, but rather a private collection of equipment located on a short stretch of abandoned Illinois Terminal Railroad trackage, one of the two railroads that served Carlinville (the GM&O being the other.) From what I understand, all of the equipment was scrapped a while back, with the possible exception of the 0-4-0T, which MAY have ended up in a Carlinville park. It is hard to confirm the that the engine still exists as none of the Carlinville internet sites that I was able to pull up, mentioned a steam locomotive in a city park, or other location. The 0-4-0T does NOT appear to be from the saddletank "collection" that was once at Rail City in Sandy Pond, New York (sorry J. David). It may however, be Laclede Steel Company #3 that was once in a park in Alton, Illinois. Another Laclede Steel 0-4-0T (#4) apparently survives, in a park in Red House, West Virginia. Unfortunately, I was unable to find a photograph of either of the Laclede Steel locomotives, which might help in the identification of the engine pictured at Carlinville.

If all of this other equipment WAS scrapped, a rare Illinois Terminal box car might be the saddest loss. Also, the tank car was supposed to be a rather unusual type. Finally, it is never good to lose any equipment from a Fallen Flag railroad, so the loss of the GM&O caboose is also unfortunate.

Les

This sounds like LaClede Steel 0-4-0T #3, ALCO (Cooke) 63299/1921; that I have listed at "abandoned amusement park, off IL Route 4, N. of Carlinville, IL". This information came from Wes Barris' original list of surviving North American steam locomotives at http://www.steamlocomotive.com.

You are correct that this loco came from a park in Alton and I'm sorry to hear that the cars were scrapped. Some years ago I stumbled on them and when I asked at the local city hall they were very anxious to get rid of the whole bunch. The owner seemed to think he could create some kind of attraction with them and had cut one boxcar into a sort of stage. There was a phony fort nearby, but it all had the look of a junk collection. The tank car was in good shape and the IT single sheathed boxcar just needed some replacement of damaged/rotted siding. The town considered it an eyesore. The town was some miles off the interstate highway and how anyone could expect it to draw an audience I can only imagine.

This was posted on the Illinois Terminal yahoo group in November 2006

--- In illinois_terminal_rr@yahoogroups.com, itmotorman@... wrote:
>
> I found out that the city of Carlinville hired a scrapper to come and clean
> up the mess on Dons property.If you want my opinion, it's a lot like NAZI
> Germany down there, I hope Don sues them for there actions! All of his train was
> scrapped along with all the other stuff he had on his property.
>
> Mark.

I think I had heard of this collection in IRM circles some years ago. Too bad they or some other group did not get to them in time.

So, was the 0-4-0T scrapped along with the rest of the equipment? J.David

J. David -

THAT seems right now to be the $64 question!

Les

Well, I just spoke with Don Eichen in Carlinville, the man who owned the locomotive and rail cars. I asked him whether the locomotive still existed and he replied,
"No, it was taken by the city and cut up for scrap in 2006."

Doug -

Thanks for taking the time to follow up on this long forgotten thread and putting the up-in-the-air status of the 0-4-0T finally to bed. Sad ending unfortunately.

Les

I rode Amtrak through Carlinville this past weekend. On the return trip, noticed that the property, and the old IT right of way parallels the old Alton Route through town. Site is still there, so is the cabin under the metal shed, but no railroad equipment.

Interestingly enough, the rails are in place on the old IT alignment through town.

As a traction fan, I'm impelled to ask, does the ex-Illinois Terminal track have heavy rail bonds left over from the days of "trolley power" or was it built after the wires came down as a bypass line? (there's still some ex-Pacific Electric track here in Southern California that still has the traction bonds, even though the last Red Car ran over 50 years ago).

Bob, I couldn't tell, was going about 80 or so on Amtrak through town.

Carlinville is close enough to my home base, it may warrant a road trip on a nice day just to check it out in person.