Military bombing practice locomotives/equipment

GTW Dude · **Joined:** Thu Mar 11, 2021 12:46 pm **Posts:** 150

Hey all, recently i began thinking about when railroads began selling off their old equipment such as steam locomotives or rolling stock that some of it had been sold at dirt cheap prices for bombing practice to different military bases. I believe that a few iconic locomotives have met this fate one specifically that comes to mind is one of the LS&I 2-8-0's which was rumored to have a remote controlled engine installed for a moving target. I have also heard that the UK's "Flying Scotsman" almost met the same fate before being saved which got me wondering how many locomotives do we know have been used for bombing practice or destroyed by the military? and could there possibly be a rare goodie out of the bunch that were bought that are still in storage awaiting an "explosive" fate? makes me wonder about that Erie 2-8-2 that was shipped to Korea with what fate awaited that locomotive and if the military at all had something to do with it.

PMC · **Joined:** Sat Oct 17, 2015 5:55 pm **Posts:** 2871

This topic comes up here often for some reason:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=38804

Richard Glueck · **Posted:** Mon Mar 22, 2021 11:18 am

Just for those who missed it, there was an article in the PRR T&HS journal about steamers given to South Korea, post war. Among those was an Erie Pacific, a Pennsy B6sb, and small fleet of C&O 0-8-0's. All ended up as scrap during the 1950's. The article was written by a gentleman who was there and saw it with his own eyes.

p51 · **Posted:** Tue Mar 23, 2021 5:21 pm

GTW Dude wrote:

I have also heard that the UK's "Flying Scotsman" almost met the same fate before being saved

Where'd you get this info?
I'm not saying it never happened, but I have read a lot about that LNER Class A3 4472 and have never read anything about someone wanting to make a gunnery target out of it...

70000 · **Posted:** Wed Mar 24, 2021 2:56 am

p51 wrote:

GTW Dude wrote:

I have also heard that the UK's "Flying Scotsman" almost met the same fate before being saved

Where'd you get this info?
I'm not saying it never happened, but I have read a lot about that LNER Class A3 4472 and have never read anything about someone wanting to make a gunnery target out of it...

A new one on me as well.
Possibly some corruption of facts following the owner, Alan Pegler, going bankrupt during the locomotives North American tour.
Didn't it end up stored on a US Military base in California at the very end, which could be the source of the "gunnery target" aspect, albeit rather far from the truth...

GTW Dude · **Joined:** Thu Mar 11, 2021 12:46 pm **Posts:** 150

70000 wrote:

p51 wrote:

GTW Dude wrote:

I have also heard that the UK's "Flying Scotsman" almost met the same fate before being saved

Where'd you get this info?
I'm not saying it never happened, but I have read a lot about that LNER Class A3 4472 and have never read anything about someone wanting to make a gunnery target out of it...

A new one on me as well.
Possibly some corruption of facts following the owner, Alan Pegler, going bankrupt during the locomotives North American tour.
Didn't it end up stored on a US Military base in California at the very end, which could be the source of the "gunnery target" aspect, albeit rather far from the truth...

That’s probably why. It doesn’t sound too far off that someone might make up something along the lines of becoming a target while stored on a military base I just happened to hear about it in passing and thought it was a bit interesting. Sorry for any misinformation.

parktrains · **Joined:** Sun Mar 05, 2017 3:05 pm **Posts:** 89

Kentucky & Tennessee Railway's big ALCO #11 met this fate at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in 1966 when it was "accidently" blown up.