Hi guys. I have just signed up for RYPN, and for a while now, I needed someone to answer a question for me. Do you know the three Rock Island 4-6-2's that were preserved? Well there were two more engines to be preserved, 4-8-2 5013, and 4-8-4 5104. Anyone have data about what happened to these engines? Like scrap data that shows they were scrapped? Could they still be out there?

Steamguy73 -

Never heard of this. Considering the always poor financial condition of the Rock, I'm a bit surprised that they even preserved three Pacific's. I do know that one of the oil burning 5100's (number 5103) was sold to Commonwealth Edison to use as a back up boiler at their Joliet generating station, and not sure just when she was eventually scrapped. Would be interesting if someone had info as to 5013 and 5104 and the story of their possible donations.

BTW, the three 4-6-2's preserved were 887 (renumbered as 886), 905 and 938.

Les

I saw something about the two engines in a site about Duncan Illinois's 905, and it said that 5104 and 5013 were destroyed. I'm not sure if that's true, as I saw in another forum that they were slated for preservation. If they were slated for preservation, why were they scrapped?

I found the site you are looking at: http://www.rockisland905.com/hist_905.htm
Yes, that line-up of 5 retired locos makes one wonder if all five were candidates for donation.

Yep, that was the one. And yes, all five were slated for preservation. Unfortunately two didn't make it. But they could be somewhere in the country, one just needs to care a whole lot. Page Dr. Seuss please.

Quick note of clarification. IF the engine on the far right side of the photo IS actually the 5013 as indicated, this is not a 4-8-2 but actually one of the earlier Rock Island 4-8-4's. She would have been built in 1929 or 1930 as I recall. It's also possible that this might actually be the 5103 (mentioned earlier in this thread) but I can't actually tell one way or the other as the photo is too small to check for sure.

Anyway, interesting 5 locomotive lineup and a shame that the other two locomotives weren't actually preserved. Although set aside, it wouldn't have been the first time that a railroad changed its mind!


Les

Back to the Rock Island locos after this word-

Slated for preservation, but never preserved. One has to remember the temper of the times, when abundant steam locomotive were still being cut up on a daily basis, and many in excellent shape. As we discussed prior to this, the Southern earmarked three PS4's for preservation and nobody could be found to take two of them! Sounds bizarre to us today, but not so much then. There are plenty of stories of railroads willing to give away a whole steamer to somebody - anybody - but no takers could be found.

Perhaps we should allow the researchers to determine the condition of those locomotives we know to exist, just haven't yet found them? There's a CPR 2-8-0 600 feet down, in a B.C. lake, where it's dark, fresh water, and cold. Should be quite a sight!

We now return to our program.

Did you mean Duncan, OK, rather than Duncan, IL??

I ran across a Trainorders discussion that dated back to 2009, although I'm not a member of that site. Someone with the initials NZ stated that he had seen a photo taken by Ray Buhrmaster in late 1953 of 5 locomotives with the back of the print labeled "Locomotives held for preservation". This might be the same photo shown above in this thread, or perhaps Mr. Buhrmaster wandered by the same group of engines and got his photo. In any event, NZ stated that the 3 eventually preserved Pacific's were in the photo, but described the other locomotives as one of the 4000 series 4-8-2's and the other as 4-8-4 #5113. Slightly different info! Not that it matters much now, but it would be nice if we knew exactly which were the other two steamers. Also, why weren't these other two saved after the Rock had set them aside? Someone might actually know the answer to that!

Les

Very interesting! I read that same post last year, and although I'm not a member of train orders, it looked very interesting. I wonder if one of these engines is still here with us, abandoned by the cri&p?