.............and the box cars full of parts and more rivets and stay bolts. And machine tools and specialty tools and tooling. I have dreamt about those parts and tooling in the boxcars since I was a young man. Subjective topic age, but a long long time now.
I know some things were saved, my understanding a lot just up and disappeared/scrapped? I think I know where the main rods for #5632 are though! Feel like a kid asking "tell me another story please". Only lived maybe 50 miles from all of this in Chicago, but a young kid didn't have the know how or know the right people to have gone down there. Chicago has always been a rough town, not a place for a naïve kid to go wondering around looking for interesting train things. Regards, John.

PS. Guess I just missed this last post as was typing away. Thanks for sharing some of the stories from your experiences.

Hi John:
Aside from 4963, most everything from the first Jensen Collection was scrapped at the Ehrman-Howell yard at 83rd (?) St.
But a few parts were saved.
Larry Cain, the Steam Locomotive Foreman/Expert at Northwestern Steel & Wire told me that one day P.W.Dillion (owner of NWS&W) told him to go down to the Ehrman-Howell yard and pick out "any parts we can use on our locomotives". The parts, of course, were from the first Jensen Collection. Unfortunately, when we loaded the parts, tools and machines, it was done in a rush, most of the smaller parts in a jumble inside the box car and the baggage car. Larry picked out stuff that was in doorways or on the top of piles in the gondola (s?).
Fast forward to early 1982, NWS&W has given the remaining 0-8-0s AND all the spare steam locomotive parts on hand to Illinois Railway Museum. We are out there in the cold loading up the parts and a lot of them look VERY familiar, including a cross compound air compressor that still has "SAVE-RJ" scrawled on it.
So a few of the parts from the first Jensen Collection still exist at IRM (along with 4963).
J.David
PS: Oh you suburban kids! Chicago wasn't such a bad place!
As a pre-teen I use to take the El and busses (by myself) from the North side to the South side most every weekend to visit my Aunt.
Prior to me coming down to volunteer for Dick, there were several high school kids who took the bus down from the North side every weekend to volunteer. In retrospect, probably one of the reasons I was accepted so readily into the volunteer crew was that I had an automobile (55' Packard Clipper, which I totaled while chasing the last run of 4960, but that is another story, not germane to this thread) and didn't mind picking up and driving people home after a fun filled day stripping lagging or some such.
JDC

There's a really neat film of an April 1969 excursion of 5629 that's posted on Youtube that names a few of the crew, including Bud Young.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epq8_Oc6MGY

I was born a few months after this film was shot which makes me feel like I missed a lot of very fun times.

Since we're back on Jensen and all over the collection, does anyone have pictures of 5632 while Jensen owned it, and in particular, of the locomotive as it was scrapped?

According to Drury, the Soo/Wisconsin Central had only 21 4-8-2s, 4000-4020 (the first four owned by Soo and the rest by WC). The few available photos on the Internet suggest that those with the higher numbers had eight-wheel tenders (unless later retro-fitted), while it appears that at least 4000, 4004, and 4007 had the larger tender. There wasn't a Soo 4-8-2 numbered 4064. It would be good to get the original number.

Just a note of thanks to the OP for the link to the #5629 video. What a blast from the past. Never have been a big participant of mainline steam excursions or big steam, but this was pretty cool. Love the psychedelic steel guitar work in the music too. Thought it was very well done, nice tribute to the crews too. Regards, John

John -

A couple of things of note in that neat video. First, the 0-6-0 shown appears to be L&NE #207, which currently resides at IRM in Union, Illinois. She worked for a private company in the Detroit area. And then the last two coaches in the train appear to be ex-Milwaukee Road cars from the original Hiawatha trains that eventually ended up on the roster of the Chicago Great Western, which gave them a nice maroon paint job. The last CGW passenger train may have been taken out of service by the time of that fan trip.

As for Richard's comment about the ex-Soo Line tender being numbered 4064, I believe most railroads numbered their tenders separate from the engine they rode behind. Maybe someone can identify which 4-8-2 was paired with this tender.

Les

This might be a good time for a dissertation on Soo Line tenders. All Soo Line tenders carried a number on cast plates riveted to the center of the side sill on each side. Tenders built with engines carried the engine number, although this number remained on the tender if it was swapped to a different engine. As an example neither of the two operable Soo engines have their original tenders; 1003 now carries tender No. 4002, 2719 now carries tender No. 1060.

Tenders that were built as replacements were numbered into one of three series: 50 and up built before WWI to replace older, smaller tenders; 1050 and up built one or two a year during the thirties to put larger stoker equipped tenders behind the 2-8-2's, and 4050 and up built on the eve of WWII to put large six axle tenders behind the 4-8-2's.

The original ten N-20 class 4-8-2's came from Alco in 1926 with 10,000 gal. tenders of USRA design, riding on structural steel underframes. The eight locomotives built by Alco in 1928, and the three assembled by the Soo at Shoreham in 1930 had 12,000 gal. "water bottom" tenders on GSC cast steel tender beds. The tenders the Soo was building themselves, 1050 and up, were copies of these later water bottom tenders, except the design was later modified to make use of five cast steel tender FRAMES purchased second hand from the Rock Island during WWII.

On the eve of WWII the Soo decided to re-equip 16, IIRC, 4-8-2's with larger 18,000 gal tenders. I believe these were built by Alco, but I've never seen anything to confirm this. Tender 4064 that went to Jensen's engine was one of this group. This allowed sixteen stoker equipped tenders of 10 and 12 thousand gal. capacity to be moved to Mikes and Pacifics which were being equipped with mechanical stokers at that time to comply with the ICC order.

John -

A couple of things of note in that neat video. First, the 0-6-0 shown appears to be L&NE #207, which currently resides at IRM in Union, Illinois. She worked for a private company in the Detroit area. [b]And then the last two coaches in the train appear to be ex-Milwaukee Road cars from the original Hiawatha trains that eventually ended up on the roster of the Chicago Great Western, which gave them a nice maroon paint job. The last CGW passenger train may have been taken out of service by the time of that fan trip. [/b]

Les,
You are correct about the two ex-Milwaukee Road coaches having been employed by the CGW. The pair was sold to the Michigan Railroad Club and at the time of this excursion were owned by them.
Don C.

Don -

Thanks for the confirmation. I don't suppose that these two ex-CGW/ex-MILW coaches might still exist? Probably too much to hope for.

Les

This photo of the derelict GTW 5629 was featured on the cover of the "Galaxy of Values" shopper's guide distributed to residents of Chicago's western and northwest suburbs on February 17, 1987, only a few months before she was scrapped. The publication came to our home when I was living in Arlington Heights.

I also photographed 5629 in actual service on the Grand Trunk Western in 1953 and 1954. (By the way, thanks for the information about the Soo Line 4-8-2 tenders.)

Richard -

Out of service - Yes

Stored unserviceable - Yes

Derelict - No

A bit of bad terminology methinks. Thanks very much for the photos of the active 5629 on the GTW. I envy the fact that you got to see, and photograph her, in regular service.

Les

I think that's the stoker engine exhaust... I've seen the same in films of 2719 running her last excursions on the Soo in '59, and I know that engine does not have a booster.

By the way, while on the subject of Soo tenders, a second of the 18000 gal. tenders escaped to a second career behind Grand Canyon Railway 4960. I don't know the number, and photos show the number plates are gone. That tender has had it's bunker sides cut down, so looks smaller.

Oh, cool, I caught the edit window so I don't have to add another semi-off topic message. Someone wanted to know which Soo engine carried tender No. 4064 that went to Jensen: I show tender No. 4064 being assigned to eng. 4013 on 8/5/42, and remaining with that engine until it was sold to Hyman-Michaels 3/18/55. I don't know if Jensen bought the tender from the Soo, or Hyman-Michaels.

[quote="Les Beckman"][quote="Don C."]
[b]And then the last two coaches in the train appear to be ex-Milwaukee Road cars from the original Hiawatha trains that eventually ended up on the roster of the Chicago Great Western, which gave them a nice maroon paint job. The last CGW passenger train may have been taken out of service by the time of that fan trip. [/b]

Les,
You are correct about the two ex-Milwaukee Road coaches having been employed by the CGW. The pair was sold to the Michigan Railroad Club and at the time of this excursion were owned by them.
Don C.[/quote]

Don -

Thanks for the confirmation. I don't suppose that these two ex-CGW/ex-MILW coaches might still exist? Probably too much to hope for.

Les[/quote]

Les,
Here is a previous discussion about the to CGW coaches:

http://rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30199

Don