Photo of Atlantic Coast Line 4-6-0 #1031:

http://abpr2.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi? ... cl1031.jpg

Taken at Rockingham, NC in 1948 or 1953 (info differs). This engine was leased to East Carolina Railway from late 1955-1957 and then to the Virginia & Carolina Southern 1957-1958. Leases may explain why the good looking Ten-Wheeler was ultimately preserved in Florence, South Carolina.

Anyone got a photo of how she looks today?

Les

She migrated to Spencer 13 years ago. She looked rather nice sitting in her roundhouse stall when I was there in July.

http://www.nctrans.org/exhibits/rail_equipment.php

I saw her there the Friday after Thanksgiving, and she still looks splendid.

She certainly looks a lot better than she did in Florence, especially in later years.

On a related note, I was fooling around with Google Maps a few months ago, and found that you can clearly see where the ACL's roundhouse was located in Florence, very near the 1031's former display site. IIRC, the 1031 sat just to the east of North Church Street, just to the left of the turn in the tracks. The Lucas Street overpass just to the west of North Church Street was built I believe in the 1970's, which put the 1031 largely out of site in a vandalism-prone location.

I've never seen a photo of the complex in steam days and there's not much left there now, but there are still clear traces visible in the satellite photo at the link below.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=florence,+sc&ie=UTF8&ll=34.201439,-79.760013&spn=0.003922,0.010815&t=h&z=17&om=1

This is truely a case of looks being deceptive. The 1031 is in poor condition due to heavy rust. The tender tank was so rotten that only the frame and trucks survived the move to NC. The tank on the original frame is the one that came to Spencer with BC&G 4. Today, 4 sports a new welded tank. If restorable 1031 would make a great engine for the train ride at Spencer.

John Bohon

The travails that 1031 suffered during its time in Florence is nothing compared to the horrors suffered by the aircraft at the Florence Air & Missile Museum. I had the privilege of visiting there in 1994. They had a superb collection of Korean vintage aircraft. While the museum was surviving on a shoestring budget, the collection included such rarities as a an F89 Scorpion, a rare Lockheed EC-121 and a Boeing KC97 Stratocruiser.

A couple of years later the city decided that they needed the museum's land for more parking space. Many of the aircraft were scrapped on site, including the KC97 and the EC121. The wings from the EC121 are going into a Constellation restoration in Dover, DE. I saw the nose section of the KC 97 at the air museum at the Charlotte, NC airport two years ago.

My question is, do the city fathers of Florence care about any history that took place post-1865?

Wow, sorry to hear that; I knew the museum had closed but I wasn't aware that aircraft had been scrapped. I payed many visits to the Air & Missile Museum when I was in high school and college. In addition to the planes you mentioned, they had quite a few "one off" aircraft, "X" prototypes and such. It was a neat museum.

It doesn't appear that they care much about Civil War history, either. Other than the National Cemetary. there is only a small, privately operated CW museum. They seem to be really into attracting the biomedical industry, though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence%2C_South_Carolina

Gary,

That's exactly what I was thinking.

Back to steam, notice that near the bottom, the wikipedia page has a photo of a "1917 Vulcan" steam locomotive displayed at the Florence Museum of Art, Science, and History. It used to be displayed near the intersection of highway 52 and I-95 at a restaurant, and was painted bright red or orange at the time. The locomotive appears to consist of a Vulcan 0-4-0 chassis (frame, cylinders, and drivers) with a heating-type low pressure steam boiler on top (Kewanee or similar). It's clearly NOT a locomotive boiler. It's been a LONG time since I saw it but the cab may be genuine too. The remainder (tender, domes, etc.) were constructed with a great deal of "artistic license".

While I was living in Hartsville, I frequented the Florence Museum and got acquainted with the curator. I asked where the engine originally came from. I was told "a brick factory in NC." No other info was known. The locomotive was kind of the poor stepchild of the museum's collection; they were more interested in fine art and Civil War uniforms and rifles.