Missouri Pacific 124 in Dupo, Illinois

wilkinsd · **Posted:** Mon Apr 11, 2011 5:32 pm

This past weekend, I was in the area, and decided to search for the remains of Missouri Pacific 124 in Dupo, Illinois. This was a 2-8-0 that the MOPAC wanted to donate to the city. Dupo is located across the river and south of St. Louis, and was the location of large MOPAC yard, still in use by the UP. The city fathers rejected the idea of displaying the entire locomotive. The solution? Cut the first 10 or so feet of the locomtotive off, including the pilot beam, cylinders, lead truck and part of the smokebox with the stack, and display just that part.

Due to the placement of two, now overgrown cedar trees beside her, she is well hidden. I drove by her twice before realizing where the display is. It is in a city park, and looks to be neglected. Sad the entire locomotive was not restored, but it could still make a stunning display, with some TLC.

Les Beckman · **Joined:** Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm **Posts:** 6482

David -

Thanks for stopping by and getting these photos. I had long wondered about this display, but never had seen a photo of it before now. The stack of the Consolidation (ex-Consolidation?) looks like it is leaning a bit; probably because there was no support put in the smokebox when the front of the loco was installed.

If I remember correctly, the 124 was one of the two 2-8-0's that made the MoPac's last steam run. Hauling a bunch of dead steamers out of the southern Illinois coal fields. Seems to me that one of the Consol's died enroute for some reason, and a diesel had to be called to help the other engine finish the run. So maybe it was actually the OTHER 2-8-0 that closed out Missouri Pacific steam.

Les

Richard Glueck · **Posted:** Mon Apr 11, 2011 9:01 pm

Rather a sad display. I wonder if anyone takes notice of these fragments at all?

wilkinsd · **Posted:** Mon Apr 11, 2011 10:35 pm

I find it somewhat odd that it is in such a sorry state. All over town are banners on the light posts proclaiming the City of Dupo, complete with a B&W photo of a MOPAC 4-8-4.

I guess a fraction of a neglected park engine is better than the whole thing.

u25b · **Posted:** Tue Apr 12, 2011 12:29 am

Jeff Lisowski wrote:

Unfortunate as it is, it could make a nice display in the right context. Say, a peek into the smoke box to see what goes on in their to the public. maybe have air blowing through it with something added to show how the exhaust nozzle works.

Doubt that will ever happen, but, what a sorry sight.

Seems like a good idea for an obviously unloved display, but it would need to go to a museum that cared for it to be given any chance of success. Perhaps the National Museum of Transport at Kirkwood would be my suggestion. It would fit well with their Ex Mopac RS3.

Wes

NS 3322 · **Posted:** Sun Nov 10, 2019 12:39 pm

An image of this locomotive was posted on Facebook today. It is still in sub-par shape, but the trees around the locomotive have been cut so it is much easier to view.

I had never heard of this locomotive prior to today.
Are there any other similar, bizarre, partial locomotive displays out there?

Frisco1522 · **Posted:** Sun Nov 10, 2019 8:53 pm

This fragment and an old Iron Mountain 4-6-0 at the Museum of Transportation are the only MP steam saved. With some of the beautiful engines they rostered, you would think they would have saved something. A 2201 or 2101 or the Madame Queen. There is even a Frisco 4-8-4 on display in Sedalia, MO which was the MP's shop town and the Frisco didn't have a line there. That's ironic.
NYC, D&RGW standard gauge and others never really saved anything historic.
Sad

Boilermaker · **Joined:** Wed Jan 16, 2019 8:47 pm **Posts:** 219

There is also another ex-MoPac/Iron Mountain 4-6-0 on display in Paris, Arkansas, identical to the one in St. Louis. Nothing of larger, true MP heritage remains however.

hankmum · **Posted:** Sun Nov 10, 2019 9:49 pm

The front of this same engine is pictured on page 47 of the February 1971 issue of Trains magazine in better days. Trains mentioned that the city didn't want to lay rail for the entire engine. Seems the bell and headlight have gone missing over the years.

NS 3322 · **Posted:** Sun Nov 10, 2019 11:43 pm

hankmum wrote:

The front of this same engine is pictured on page 47 of the February 1971 issue of Trains magazine in better days. Trains mentioned that the city didn't want to lay rail for the entire engine. Seems the bell and headlight have gone missing over the years.

From another thread. Apparently the headlight of NYC #3001 was on #154 for a time.

Les Beckman wrote:

Mark A. Frazier on another thread, mentions finding 3001's original headlight on the "front portion" of Missouri Pacific #124 that is on display in Dupo, Illinois. That got me to thinking about the New York Central, and its headlights with the number board and below that number board, the New York Central oval herald. I don't know how common this particular arrangement was on Central steam power, but I recall that ex-Buffalo Creek & Gauley 2-8-0 #13 was renumbered as #1977 with a similar headlight/number plate/oval NYC herald when it worked for a short time in tourist train operation in the Middlebury, Indiana area. I think that 1977 might have been the number of a NYC 2-8-2, but I don't know that for sure. Might this be the headlight (with a new number plate and number boards in the headlight of course) that is currently on the 3001 there at Elkhart? If not, does the museum have the 1977 headlight/number plate/herald on display in their museum?

Another NYC headlight/number plate/oval NYC herald of this type that comes to mind, is the one off of famous Hudson #5344. This is the 4-6-4 that the Central streamlined not once, but twice! The second streamlining was later removed and the engine ended up looking like any other New York Central J-1 class Hudson at the end of her active career. But the story doesn't quite end there. I remember going into a hobby shop in Park Ridge, Illinois (Hill's Hobbies) and there, mounted high in one corner was the 5344's headlight/number plate/oval NYC herald! The owner had it on display because he was looking for the builders plates off of the engine. Don't know if he ever found them, but the last time I was in the shop, the headlight was no longer there.

Les

LeoA · **Joined:** Mon Sep 28, 2015 12:30 am **Posts:** 312

Strange coincidence this getting bumped. Just last week I had I read the February 1971 issue of Trains with a photo of this display in their old "Would You Believe It?" column, and was wondering if it was still around.

NS 3322 wrote:

Are there any other similar, bizarre, partial locomotive displays out there?

A cab off a Rutland locomotive is on display in Madrid NY, just a few hundred feet away from the New York & Ogdensburg's remnant of Rutland's New York division.

https://northcountrynow.com/news/centur ... day-014494

I believe this is the largest piece of a Rutland steam locomotive still in existence. Otherwise there are just bells, whistles, and builder's plates to the best of my knowledge.

EDM · **Posted:** Mon Nov 11, 2019 9:46 am

Off the top of my head, and a bit off topic, but there is a complete Rutland steam locomotive deep in the woods of Maine. Very isolated, it was used on a logging railroad. It sits alongside another locomotive, that may be of NYC ancestry. It's been awhile since I've read about them, but I'm sure one of them is a former Rutland engine.

Richard Glueck · **Posted:** Mon Nov 11, 2019 10:44 am

The Maine locos both came through the NYC system, and it was recently determined by an individual using library resources (When did you last see that?) neither locomotive is ex-Rutland. This is a let down to Rutland fans, but better to have the truth. By the way, both locomotives belong to the Maine government, so neither will ever be moved. Credit a group of heroes for jacking the locomotives up, re-railing them, and ballasting the track beneath them.

EDM · **Posted:** Mon Nov 11, 2019 11:39 am

I'll admit it has been quite a few years since I read about the Maine logging locomotives, but at the time, one of them was listed as being ex-Rutland. If someone has done some research more recently to prove otherwise, that's fine.

And I noted the word 'library' being underlined; in this day and age an often underused resource! Anymore it appears that the concept of 'if it's on the internet, it must be true' prevails. Google and Wiki seem to have become the 'go to' resources.

NS 3322 · **Posted:** Mon Nov 11, 2019 4:19 pm

Richard Glueck wrote:

The Maine locos both came through the NYC system, and it was recently determined by an individual using library resources (When did you last see that?) neither locomotive is ex-Rutland. This is a let down to Rutland fans, but better to have the truth. By the way, both locomotives belong to the Maine government, so neither will ever be moved. Credit a group of heroes for jacking the locomotives up, re-railing them, and ballasting the track beneath them.

I have always wondered, are the Maine locomotive easy to visit/view? I intend to visit them at some point in the future, but I am unsure if there is a path to where they sit or whether one has to come in via boat?

Link to the location of the two locomotives:
https://www.google.com/maps/search/46.3 ... AHoECAoQAQ