The November-December 1994 issue of L&RPN had a mention of Georgia Northern Railway loco No. 102 (ALCo, 1923) as having been sold by Illinois Railway Museum to the End-O-Line Railroad Park and Museum in Currie, MN. I have noticed a lot of posts about/from IRM recently and was wondering if anyone could provide an update to those of us in Pidcock Lines territory regarding what has happened to this lovely little 4-6-0.

syfrettinc@bellsouth.net

I was able to find the website of the End-O-Line Railroad Park and Museum (link below). If you look at the Slideshow and go all the way to the end of it, there's a picture of #102 sitting on display. It really looks good, apparently complete and nicely painted.

Frank Hicks

End-O-Line Railroad Park and Museum
frank@gats.com

Thanks, for the lead, Frank. The photo is small, but it looks like they did a great job, especially since it is my understanding all they started with was the boiler on frame w/ wheels and cylinders and the tender. Can anyone from IRM enlighten me on the story behind this?

Until I found out about 102 in L&RP in I only knew of four locomotives from the Pidcock Lines that remained, including our GN Ry 107 here in Albany, GA. Others are GN Ry 105 in Moultrie, GAS&C 100 in Sylvester and Albany & Northern 9 in Camilla. Anyone know of others?


syfrettinc@bellsouth.net

> Until I found out about 102 in L&RP in I
> only knew of four locomotives from the
> Pidcock Lines that remained, including our
> GN Ry 107 here in Albany, GA. Others are GN
> Ry 105 in Moultrie, GAS&C 100 in
> Sylvester and Albany & Northern 9 in
> Camilla. Anyone know of others?

Are any of the diesels still around as anything other than a Buick bumper??? It's safe to say the FTs are long gone, and the BLW too, but what of the GE70 Tonners and the SW8?


NFDRwy@Cox.net

> Are any of the diesels still around as
> anything other than a Buick bumper??? It's
> safe to say the FTs are long gone, and the
> BLW too, but what of the GE70 Tonners and
> the SW8?

Re history on GN 102, one of IRM's Steam Team members spotted it sitting on a flatcar on the south side of Chicago, literally with a scrapper climbing on the car with his torch. He physically restrained (threatened? perhaps) the scrapper, and we quickly tracked down the property owner. The loco had been owned by the late Dick Jensen, but Jensen had never paid storage to the property owner, who was tired of looking at it and ready to develop the property.

We finally cut a deal where Jensen's sister donated the loco to IRM, and IRM paid the landowner $5000 "back rent". And you are right, it was little more than a bare boiler on a frame, along with a tender. Many of the parts (rods, smokebox front, all jewelry) had long since disappeared. When the other museum expressed interest, we were happy to see it go to a good home. Yes, they've done an EXCELLENT job making it look good!


kevinmccabe@avenew.com

on:

1. saving it
2. seeing that it went to a good home
3. new home taking care of her.

This is a nice story with a happy ending!

Jim
-------

When
> the other museum expressed interest, we were
> happy to see it go to a good home. Yes,
> they've done an EXCELLENT job making it look
> good!

I believe there is a business car in Saginaw, Texas, privately owned, and beautifully restored.

Link has info on "railroad Park" there.
Can't seem to track down WHERE I found this car, but the fellow that owns it sent a nice book he had made about the car... will try to track it down if anyone is interested..



http://www.saginawtxchamber.org/

I think most of the missing parts have been replicated of wood after a fashion, by a local person. There was some speculation that the missing parts might have ended up in a boxcar that went with Jensen's other 4-6-0 to Rockford, IL. Anyone know if this was true, or were the parts scrapped? End-O-Line Park, incidently, was begun by Girl Scouts as a community service project

Do any of the Pidcock lines still exist? The scab shortline outfit I worked for for a while had some trackage down that way, but I don't think any of it was ex-Pidcock. One of the Pidcock lines had a Fairbanks-Morse doodlebug also, but I suspect it was scrapped.



ryarger@rypn.org

> I was able to find the website of the
> End-O-Line Railroad Park and Museum (link
> below). If you look at the Slideshow and go
> all the way to the end of it, there's a
> picture of #102 sitting on display. It
> really looks good, apparently complete and
> nicely painted.

> Frank Hicks

The link to the End-O-Line, which i found in the RyPN Links, is below.


End-O-Line Railroad park
hkading@rypn.org

The rods, smoke box front, and cab equipment etc. from the GN 102 were contained in Jensen's Box Cars along with the parts for 5632, which were illeagally seized and sent to the scrap dealers by C&WI. The replacement costs of these items were the primary portion of the value disputed in Jensen's Lawsuit with C&WI.

rich_young@afbisinc.com

> The rods, smoke box front, and cab equipment
> etc. from the GN 102 were contained in
> Jensen's Box Cars along with the parts for
> 5632, which were illeagally seized and sent
> to the scrap dealers by C&WI. The
> replacement costs of these items were the
> primary portion of the value disputed in
> Jensen's Lawsuit with C&WI.

As I recall this was alluded to in the L&RP article. I was hoping it was not true but apparently so. Thanks for the info.


syfrettinc@bellsouth.net

The 102 was used by the Crabtree Coal Company in west Kentucky prior to Dick Jensen acquiring it. Crabtree replaced an ex- Cadiz, nee-RF&P 0-6-0 with the 102 which they may have bought from Ga Northern or via a dealer.

The Crabtree operation was pathetic at best. Derailments were common and they had replaced a sand dome with a home made hopper affair which was mounted on top of the boiler. We have movies of the engine in operation in our video "Mid American Glory-ICRR" since Crabtree sent its loads out on the IC. It ran until the early 1960's and then sat on the property for several years before Jensen got it.

It's nice to see it preserved but whoever assembled the valve gear really blew it on the eccentric crank. If you look, the eccentric crank is upside down. Somebody help them mount it correctly, please!


hrvideo@mindspring.com

> Do any of the Pidcock lines still exist? The
> scab shortline outfit I worked for for a
> while had some trackage down that way, but I
> don't think any of it was ex-Pidcock. One of
> the Pidcock lines had a Fairbanks-Morse
> doodlebug also, but I suspect it was
> scrapped.

Bob, I won't name the operation I think you reference, but the local operation was probably the Atlantic & Gulf, which operated on former Atlantic Coast Line trackage bought and/or leased from CSX. Georgia & Florida RailNet now operates those lines plus the former Georgia Northern "main line" between Albany and Moultrie, GA, continuing to over the old Georgia & Florida to Sparks, GA. (The Moultrie-Sparks segment of G&F was officially made part of the GN Ry after Southern bought the Pidcock Lines in 1966.)

The last part of the Georgia, Ashburn, Sylvester & Camilla (GAS&C) from Camilla northeast to Bridgeboro was removed about 4 years ago. The Albany & Northern was out of service below Warwick (into Albany) back in the 1960s I believe, and the rail was removed in about 1983 or so. (There has been some discussion of reinstalling the wye at Cordele where the A&N came into the small SAL yard.)

As to the F-M doodlebug, it is long-gone, as are the 70 tonners, the BLW and even the SW-8 (which incidentally was one of/the(?) EMD demonstrator unit). I would like to find out the SW-8 was still around somewhere, but I have little hope of that being the case. I tried to track down the A&N 70-tonner a few years ago and ran into a dead end.

Ring any bells out there?
Stephen


syfrettinc@bellsouth.net

> I believe there is a business car in
> Saginaw, Texas, privately owned, and
> beautifully restored.

> Link has info on "railroad Park"
> there.
> Can't seem to track down WHERE I found this
> car, but the fellow that owns it sent a nice
> book he had made about the car... will try
> to track it down if anyone is interested..

Rudd, please see what you can find out about the car. From what I have been able to find out in researching the GN Ry business cars, there are three known and all three are accounted for. Wonder if this might be LOP&G or or other from down this way. Of course, the best known is the GOLD COAST in CSRM, which was not on the GN RY very long before being bought by Beebe & Clegg.

We also know of a coach and combine that operated on the GN lines but were not original to them. Apparently they had only 2 pieces of freight equipment, 2 boxcars (101 and 102). They also had some significant MOW equipment, sort of unusual for a shortline, I think. I've seen photos of the MOW equip and have photos of 101 & 102. Then there are the cabeese.

Anything else?

Stephen



syfrettinc@bellsouth.net

Stephen,

Guess I'm getting old, I finally managed to dig up some liturature on the car. It's Georgia and Florida car 100. Bought in derelict condition by a bank , they spent mega bucks on restoring it for some reason, then sold it to a private individual.