A friend of mine who's been to South Korea on several occasions made these observations about the POSSIBLE ex-Erie RR 4-6-2 that MIGHT be in South Korea (I'm not claiming this existence, but would like to see it proved or disproved):

" Let's see... in the Seoul suburb of
Pugok there is the KNR (i.e. Korean National Railroad/Railway) museum (with the KNR college in back - yes, they
have a railroad college for up-and-coming employees) and under cover (a
protective roof) in front of the college was a US-made locomotive. I don't
recall its particulars too much, just that it was the only US locomotive on
site. It was smaller than the one to the north at the DMZ. Come to think
of it, I think the plaque in front of it (in English and Korean) might have
identified it as an Erie locomotive".

Anyone heading to South Korea soon who could verify this?

> A friend of mine who's been to South Korea
> on several occasions made these observations
> about the POSSIBLE ex-Erie RR 4-6-2 that
> MIGHT be in South Korea (I'm not claiming
> this existence, but would like to see it
> proved or disproved):

> " Let's see... in the Seoul suburb of
> Pugok there is the KNR (i.e. Korean National
> Railroad/Railway) museum (with the KNR
> college in back - yes, they
> have a railroad college for up-and-coming
> employees) and under cover (a
> protective roof) in front of the college was
> a US-made locomotive. I don't
> recall its particulars too much, just that
> it was the only US locomotive on
> site. It was smaller than the one to the
> north at the DMZ. Come to think
> of it, I think the plaque in front of it (in
> English and Korean) might have
> identified it as an Erie locomotive".

> Anyone heading to South Korea soon who could
> verify this?

Aha! the "phantom" Erie steamer surfaces again!
A friend who was in Korea 'way back showed me pictures of that loco, and at the request of a GI, had the the Erie diamond painted on her! There have been rumors of this engine being still in existence over the years, and I'm curious whether this engine survived myself.
Anybody have a GI friend/relative stationed over there?

schwartzsj@juno.com

Hal Carstens was looking for this engine 30 years ago. Evidently there WAS an Erie 4-6-2 sent to Korea as foreign aid around the time of the war there (early 1950's) This would be the engine with the Erie diamond.

KNR runs left-hand and the KNR's own engines were left-hand drive. A US engine would have the controls on the wrong side.

A KNR roster from 1970 showed 105 steam engines with two 4-6-2's, both PaSi-5 class built in Korea.

Conclusion is the Erie engine is long gone.

As an aside KNR mostly burned oil in 1970 but the last enginehouse using coal was a place called I Ri on a branch line to the West Coast. Pronounced Ee Ree.



Electric City Trolley Museum Association

A link that may prove helpful. Note engine over cover in photo way down the page.

http://homepage3.nifty.com/bong-seol-ga ... SEUMKT.htm

And there is this photo from webshots attributed as a Japanese-built Pacific.

Maybe someone can translate?

Korean Museum Website

> And there is this photo from webshots
> attributed as a Japanese-built Pacific.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/521 ... 5777zlccAG



Korean Pacific Photo

I prompted my firend Dave Albertson to check out some rumored locations of the Erie 4-6-2. James Hefner has Dave's tales online. Click link below. Scroll down...

http://www.pernet.net/~james1/us_steam/korea.htm
rdavis@rypn.org