Reading on the Narrow Gauge Forum about the abandoned stock cars in Dulce, I started thinking about my families failed attempted at rail preservation. We have about 1/4 mile of Wabash track across the end of eighty acres of land in central Illinois. When the trackage was being abandoned my grandfather bought the rails in place across the land from the scrapers. Later I learned he had also bought three railcars to set on the trackage. He died before the process was completed. We have the rails on the land but the cars were left in Sullivan . Nobody in the family knew about the cars for a couple of months till a rent due notice from a fertilizer company that had them stored on their siding. The scrapers had already gone past the owned trackage and it was land lock. My uncle then took it upon himself , cut the cars up , later told my mother it was to save the estate rental fees. He later tried cutting up the switch in Cushman, but it was costing too much and quit. Six months later he cut up a small steam switcher that was a heating water boiler for a shoe company in Mattoon. That was going to be the engine for the three car train. We did not learn of the engine till years later. I have no idea how my grandfather thought they were going to transport the engine 25 miles as even at that time it had set idle for 25 years. My uncle just viewed railroad stuff as scrape value. In the 1990's my mother wanted to buy a caboose and have it set on the trackage. My father jokingly said her brother would just try to scrape it. She just could not stand it if he outlived her and scraped her caboose so that near happened. I can see how abandoned failed dreams of railroad equipment happens. It sometimes is a combination of bad circumstances and outside pressures that doom preservation attempts. Mktjames who also modelrailroads Wabash.

Kind of a sad preservation story to start the new year. I wonder if anyone might have any information on the "small steam switcher" at the shoe company in Mattoon, Illinois? On the other hand, there are some positive stories about individuals preserving railroad equipment. Sammy King's recent save of Porter 0-4-2T number 6; a family in Indiana that has saved a AT&SF caboose and small diesel are two examples that come to mind, and I'm sure there are others. Let's hope that the desire doesn't go away.

Happy New Year everyone!

Les

hijacked thread eh? Failed preservation attempts eh?

rustybore -

Yes. Well, after mktjames started his thread, and I commented, things seem to have went off on a tangent. And quite a tangent at that! Well, I will leave that alone for sure, but would like to try to get mktjames thread "back on track" (how's that for a pun to start the New Year?). I am also curious mktjames, as to what three cars your grandfather would have purchased for his 1/4 mile of trackage? Do you have any idea? "Small steam switcher"; three cars; track. Wish he had been around long enough to see things through. I kind of get the impression that perhaps the track itself might still exist, or did your uncle get to that too?


Les

P.S. It appears that the "comments" made on this thread that had nothing to do with mktjames original posting, have now been removed to a separate thread completely. Thanks to Jeff Lisowski for handling this. Jeff - You do good work!

L.B.

I talked to my father last night and he thinks the engine was in the Charleston, Illinois shoe factory and not Mattoon. He also confirmed the tracks are still in place. The tracks go across Hall road which runs east and west between Sullivan and Lovington that are on a north south tangent. This is still visible on Google Earth. There was also a small steamer saved in Decatur , Illinois into the 1960's at Sol Ticks salvage that was off the old Wabash yard. I have never found any reference to this engine either, but I did see it there as of late 1969. I don't know what freight cars were saved for awhile in Sullivan as these were after the fact story's. My grandfather worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad during WW11 at Lovington doing grain shipments so I know he had a keen interest in railroading and also collected 1950's models of Penn Line trains that I inherited. Mktjames

Mktjames -

Thanks for the additional information. All very interesting!


Les

mktjames; Regarding the steam engine at/near Sol Tick in Decatur, IL. Could this have been Southern 2-8-0 401, now operating at Monticello Railway Museum? It sat just outside Sol-Tick for several years after it arrived from Alabama in early 1968, (January) waiting for a place to go in Monticello, IL. It was owned at that time by the Museum, (then known as SPUR), but when it arrived at Decatur, there was not yet any property in Monticello at which to store it. So it, and some other pieces of equipment were slowly marshalled at Decatur to await a home. The loco and a number of other pieces of equipment were finally moved from Decatur to Monticello in October of 1971.

Kent -

Thanks for the info on Southern # 401 being at/near Sol Tick in Decatur in the late 1960's. It makes sense that that is probably the engine that mktjames saw there at that time. As for the small steam switcher at the shoe factory in Charleston (not Mattoon), I wonder if this might have been a former Wabash 0-6-0 that worked for some company down in that area at one time. A number of years ago, I stumbled across a bay window caboose on display in Pine Village which is in western Indiana, not too far from the Illinois state line. The guy who owned the caboose, had loaded the inside of the caboose with various railroad items. One thing that caught my eye was a Baldwin builders plate which he had found laying in the dirt at a scrap yard from somewhere in that area. I later checked and found that the plate came from that Wabash 0-6-0. I purchased an 8 x 10 photo from M. D. McCarter and sent it to him to display with the builders plate. Wish I remember the number of the Wabash engine, but can't recall it. I realize that this is a possibility only. The actual engine at the Charleston shoe factory is quite likely to be some other locomotive entirely.

Les