Many here are aware that many of the older locomotives at St. Louis came from a collection once at the engineering school at Purdue. While doing some research, I found this Google scan of an old article describing the collection origin.

http://books.google.com/books?id=pzUxAQAAMAAJ&lpg=RA2-PR38&ots=av1To97Ubd&dq=purdue%20locomotive%20collection&pg=RA2-PR38#v=onepage&q=purdue%20locomotive%20collection&f=false

I am still ticked that they scrapped the James Toleman without fixing the obvious faults as a test... ;-}

Steven -

Thanks for posting this. A few comments if I may. First of all, there is a mention in all of these old Purdue Engineering papers, of the "new" coal fired powerplant. Purdue eventually ended up with two power plants for their campus; both of which employed self-propelled locomotive cranes to move coal piles around. The in-campus plant was taken off line first, and upon inquiry, the University donated their Orton crane to the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum, where we restored it and have long used it around the museum, still proudly lettered for the school. The newer edge-of-campus power plant eventually decided to use a payloader to move coal around, and the second (newer) Orton crane was also declared surplus and went to the Indiana Transportation Museum, although I don't know if they use it or not. BTW, Purdue also had an old Whitcomb 44-ton diesel, which was a sister to the unit that we currently have at HVRM. I think there also was another small industrial diesel (GE?) that came later, although I don't know for sure what happened to either of these two units. They also had two old ex-Monon Railroad composite coal hoppers which apparently did not survive. The Purdue locomotive collection went to the Museum of Transport in St. Louis. At the time of its donation, there really were no established railroad museums in the state of Indiana where the collection could have gone. Quite often forgotten is the 1903 Brill built test Interurban that was also a part of that collection. Would be nice if someday, at least one of those collection pieces might end up back home in Indiana. All in all, I believe that Purdue probably donated more pieces of railroad artifacts to railroad museums, than any other university in the United States.

Les Beckman (HVRM/North Judson, Indiana)

Head up, one Purdue engine was the 0-10-0 Reuben Wells, which is now at the Children's Museum in Indianapolis.

Anyone know, was this engine a flexi-beam or have motion control for that long wheelbase?

Steven -

Thanks. I had forgotten about the Rueben Wells and its connection to Purdue, although its path to the Children's Museum in Indy was a little circuitous. The Pennsy's Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis donated the engine to Purdue in 1904. In 1940, the University donated it back to the Pennsylvania Railroad, apparently for historic (display) purposes. It was actually Penn Central that eventually "loaned" the 0-10-0RT to the Children's Museum in 1968. But I think we can rightly include the locomotive as part of Purdue's railroad donation legacy.

Les

Connections to related threads:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=34657

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=34663

From the photos I've been able to see of this locomotive, it looks like it had a conventional suspension system of the time; it does appear to have articulated rods, suggesting some sort of provision for lateral axle movement. One thing to keep in mind is that the Madison incline that this locomotive was specifically built for was mostly straight, except for a curve at the bottom, and of course switches at each end.

http://cdm15078.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ ... /444/rec/7

http://cdm15078.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ ... /443/rec/6

http://cdm15078.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ ... /445/rec/5

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images ... _wells.jpg

Almost the only decent right-side view of the locomotive I could find; of interest is that it is captioned at this site as an "0-6-4-0," suggesting some sort of articulation, perhaps some sort of lateral axle movement with those articulated rods. The engine does exist; I wonder if someone has had the chance to visit it and take a close look at it.

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/prr2s.jpg

For some reason this Wikipedia link doesn't work directly; you have to copy the whole thing into your address bar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuben_Wells_(locomotive)

http://mjcpl.org/rivertorail/buildingth ... e-railroad

http://mjcpl.org/rivertorail/buildingth ... he-incline

http://mjcpl.org/rivertorail/buildingth ... ined-plain

http://mjcpl.org/rivertorail/buildingth ... locomotive

J3a-614:

It's also good to remember that the locomotive was originally built in 1868 as a 48" gauge 0-8-0T. It was converted sometime in the 1880's to its present configuration.


Les

Learned something new today! I had thought the engine was a custom job from new!