Out in the Puget Sound (WA state), people used to tell the story of a steam engine and passneger cars collapsed into a gorge while making a movie, and they're all still there.
Turns out, it was no rumor!
http://www.brian894x4.com/RingofFire.html

How about the legend of the matched pair of the largest 2-2-2 Planet steam locos ever built, only a few miles off the North Jersey coast, and about 90 feet down? To add to the lore, the New Jersey Museum of Transportation at the Pine Creek Rwy. in Allaire State Park filed an Admiralty claim to arrest them so at least one could be retrieved and either run or replicated!

Not a legend, but fact; the following link is to a .pdf document:

http://njmt.org/docs/projects/SunkenLoc ... ticles.pdf

Besides pictures on the web; there was also an epiode on Deep-Sea Detectives about them. It is believed they were made by Seth Wilmarth in 1851-1855; and may have been bound for California. How they ended up on the ocean floor side-by-side with little or no other debris is a mystery; covered well (complete with computer animation) by the Deep-Sea Dectectives episode.

IIRC during the Deep Sea Detectives episode they said the locos rolled off the deck of the ship that was carrying them. Can't recall if it was during a storm or that they just weren't secured well. It is amazing that they remained upright.

Bill

What's more, they are side by side, close together, and almost parallel. There doesn't seem to be any deck or boat or barge under them.

A caption for a month in a colorful antique locomotives calendar about 1985 claimed that the Lackawanna's 2nd steam engine, the Morris & Essex RR's "Essex" was sold to the Western Ohio RR in 1850 and sank on the steamer "Clarion" in Lake Erie. While this would not be a brand new loco, it would represent conditions a couple of years older than the Planets mentioned above.
To confuse things, Prof. Hilton's "Great Lakes Carferries" book mentions a "Clarion" that sank in the mouth of the Detroit river about 1897.

Here in New England we have a few lost engine stories. One of them concerned the ex-Sandy River/SR&RL/KC/WW&F Portland-built 0-4-4RT, now happily found as described earlier.
A former B&M Pacific-type 3666 lies below sea level off of Portsmouth, NH. An excellent account of this can be found at www.beverlyhistory.org/2000701smnews.pdf
"Steam Locomotives of the New Haven Railroad" by Charles Fisher, a collection of reprinted R&LHS Bulletins lists a pair of very early Boston & Providence locomotives that were lost-
the "Massachusetts" was lost in a bog at Mansfield, and the "Black Hawk" was "lost with a load of dirt in the quicksands of Sprague Pond, Readville."
There were also a couple of rather tall tales circulating around during the 60s and 70s that I remember. One concerned a New Haven Mogul that was at the bottom of Hatch's Pond near South Kent CT, and the other described a Mountain-type that was sealed into a factory boiler room somewhere in New Haven territory.

There is a legend of a locomotive being lost off the M&StL crossing Mud Lake near Hopkins, MN. This was probably between the origination of the railroad in 1871 and its realignment in 1902, during which time, the railroad crossed the lake on a 300-ft. trestle. I have not been able to find historical documentation, but I have a professional magnetometer survey that proves a ferris mass of several tens of tons approx. 40 ft. below the surface. That would be about 25 ft. into the muck bottom. This magnetic anomaly is right alongside of the trestle (much of the trestle ruins still exist below the surface of the lake).

Considering the variety of motive power that operated over this line, a locomotive could have been: M&StL, Iowa Central, CMStP&O, RI, NP, H&D, or SOO. It could also be an engine used in construction work during the line re-location of 1902.

Nearby Shady Oak Lake is documented to contain an 0-4-0T lost during the realignment of the Milwaukee Road in 1913. That lake also contains a large articulated motor scraper (CAT DW-21 or similar) that was lost during the realignment of Shady Oak Road in 1967.

Just for the record, the Sandy River engine was never "lost"! ;)
The Maine 2-footer community always knew exactly where it was..
yes, it sat in a barn for several decades..but everyone knew it was there.
doesnt really count as a "lost" or "legend" type engine..

Scot

I had been closely following the discovery of the two identical 2-2-0 locomotive submerged in the ocean off the coast of New Jersey in the period before NJMT got involved. It is my understanding that the intent is to recover the engines. But I have not heard anything about the plan for them once recovered.

I would think that the post-recovery plan would be the most challenging aspect of the project, considering that the engines are highly deteriorated, yet extremely significant as historical artifacts due to their age. In my opinion, a goal of restoring them to operating condition would be a poor choice. These engines are astounding in terms of being historical artifacts. So far, the story of their current fate has eluded historical researchers, but there is always the possiblity of a breakthrough.

I believe their value is in their present condtion with their long developed patina, which speaks to their remarkable history. Recovery would allow the public to see them first hand, but it would be nice to have them look like they do in their present, submerged condition.

If that were the objective, how could their existing, deteriorated condition be stabilized for an above water display?

If the Hunley can be conserved, these teakettles can too. Maybe several decades of electrolysis?

dave

The only option for these two locomotives is to immerse them in a solution which gently leaches the sodium chloride ions from the iron and replaces them with another stable type. This is a long and expensive solution, and the only option with iron that has been under the sea. Operational restoration is out of the question, as the boilers will be too brittle to withstand the pressure of a thumb, much less X many psi steam. I agree, these should be recovered from the seabed, but only when the stabilizing tanks are ready and mounted on the recovery barge. Exposure to the air begins the deterioration immediately.

Forgot to throw in my favorite story from my region; a steam locomotive and shovel were left in the bottom of a quarry near Rockland, Texas one evening. (Rockland is where the granite in the seawall in Galveston came from; it was built after the 1900 hurricane.)

When the workers came back the next morning, they found a sinkhole had opened up overnight, and the train and shovel were gone. The sinkhole is called "Blue Hole", and is on private hunting land near the Boykin Springs campground. The lake is clearly visible on the arial photographs on the web.

My pastor swam in the lake when he was young, and related the story to me. Later, a diver e-mailed me when he read the account on my old website, and said he found railroad tracks, 45 RPM records that were frisbeed into he lake, and the hulks of several stolen cars. The stolen cars were later recovered, and the cliffs were blown down to make the sinkhole less of an attractive nuisance; so no telling what shape the train and shovel are in.

Then there is the T&P 4-4-0, #642, lost in Village Creek near Handley, Texas. I thought it would be fun to go look for it; but I understand the track alignment now is different from what it was then.

Nearby Louisiana has as many lost locomotives as swamps and lakes; eight that I know of, but probably many more that I don't.

Actually, the dumping of the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad locomotives in the Tennessee River is documented historical fact. Three locomotives ( I forget their names) were run off the Tennessee River bridge at Louden, TN in late 1863 to prevent their capture by the US Army. As far as I know, there is no documentation of them being salvaged. The gentleman whose quote is my signature was ordered to destroy the locomotives, but could not bring himself to do it. In his memoirs, he notes the date and locomotives so destroyed.

Alan, I heard a similar story about the Atchafalaya Bayou as a repository for locomotives being distroyed during the War. Perhaps James knows more about it seeing it is in his back yard.

dave