Thought many members of the group, might be interested in seeing the current condition of Texas Pacific - Missouri Pacific Terminal Railroad # 2 ( originally built for the Trinity and Brazos River Railroad Company # 76 ) ,built by Alco in 1907 ( construction # 42929 ). This rarely seen little 0-6-0 is hidden away inside the Bisso Marine operation along side the Mississippi River in New Orleans. The locomotive was T&BR Railway and sold in 1917 to Barry Equipment Company, being sold again in 1927 to the Texas Pacific / Missouri Pacific Terminal RR # 2, before being again sold to the New Orleans Coal and Bisso Towboat Company # 2 and later Trans - Mississippi Terminal Railroad # 2....

Locomotive is on a panel track, about 300 yards from the New Orleans Public Belt mainline and about 200 yards from the Mississippi River and is barely visible without knowing it is there...

The locomotive appears to be in good / fair cosmetic condition, and certainly is one of those hidden treasures, you rarely hear anything about, and seldom get to see up close...

The photographs provided show the current ( Match 2010 ) appearance of this locomotive.

Amazing how some things survive ? Just for thought, if the locomotive were to be sold / donated by Bisso, what would be the best possible location for this locomotive given its unique history ( all just speculation of course )

thanks


Dean Levin

It may not make a hill of beans of difference by this point in time, but I sure would like it if someone could flip the stack cover back over.

It looks little changed since I visited it in the mid-1990s; surprising considering what the area has been through.

It really isn't on panel track. Back when steamships were still coal-fired, coal cars loaded with coal would be brought here to New Orleans Coal Co. from up north. Engine 76 would push them up the ramp to an iron-and-concrete coal hopper, where the coal car would be emptied. A conveyor would then carry the coal out of the hopper and up into the ship's bunker. When steamships switched to oil-firing and were themselves replaced by diesels, the operation became obsolete. At a later date, #76 may have been rolled up and down the ramp using steam or compressed air from an outside source. Bisso Coal reorganized itself as Bisso Towboat; at which point the engine became a billboard for the company; still sitting on the same ramp it once pushed cars up on.

The opertion is behind the Audubon Zoo; you cross some tracks, and stop at the office for permission before going to see the locomotive. This old picture from my trip shows the overgrown and derelict coal hoppers, and the office beyond it. So it really is in a correct setting; although not easy to get to, and about average condition for a park locomotive.

Here is a closer picture I took at the same time. Looks like the cover was closed at the time. Maybe Katrina flipped it over?

According to a Sunday 3/15/10 post on the Louisiana Railfan & Model Railroad Group Yahoo! group, #2 has been donated to the Louisiana Railway Heritage Trust and will soon be moved to the LRHT/La. Steam Train Assn. storage yard.

Jim Tatum.