The Age of Steam Roundhouse is pleased to announce that former Morehead & North Fork 0-6-0 #12 was successfully fired-up and operated around the AoSRH property in Sugarcreek, Ohio, on July 16 and 17, 2018.

This is the first derelict steam locomotive to be totally rebuilt and brought back to life at the AoSRH shop. M&NF 0-6-0 #12 was always a sentimental favorite of AoSRH founder, Jerry Joe Jacobson, who saw this locomotive in regular operation on the M&NF during the early 1960s. Jerry purchased #12 during 2011, and authorized the loco's total rebuild before he passed away in September 2017. Jerry would have been very happy and proud to see #12 under steam once again.

Formerly Southern Railway 0-6-0 #1643 built by Alco Pittsburg in 1905, #12 sports the Southern's usual top-lever steam whistle. The tender's cistern and coal bunker are of new construction on top of the original tender frame. The rebuild was done under the direction of long-time steam expert, Tim Sposato, AoSRH's chief mechanical officer.

To see photos and a short video of #12's first test runs, please visit our webpage at: http://www.ageofsteamroundhouse.com

Be safe.

John B. Corns
Age of Steam Roundhouse
Sugarcreek, Ohio

Congratulations to all involved! I visited M&NF several times but never caught the 12 in service. I do have some good video of it running there that I recently transferred from film shot in the 1950's.
-JH

From what I can see from the photos and video, I'm truly in awe. M&NF #12 looks absolutely phenomenal. I really hope that we will get to see #12 in action pulling a train somewhere in the near future. A locomotive as amazing as this definitely deserves to get out there and run.

Well done, AoSR. The work you did on #12 is breath-taking. I know that JJJ is watching over all of you, and he is very pleased with the end result.

This is one of the photos from the Age of Steam's page about #12. There are several more at the link listed earlier.

[One quick question: What 3 chime is #12 wearing? The only top lever 3 chime I know of is a Reading 3 chime.]

The dream remains solidly alive!

Thanks, John.

.

fantastic job! well done.

Just want to say how pleased I am to see my dream of the past 28 years come to life, literally.
Good job in the restoration and the paint.

Glad to see her operate and look forward to more footage.

Kelly Anderson,

To answer your question about the cross heads and Stephenson Valve Gear, the engine was rebuilt with the new cross heads in 1939. I have a photo of it before rebuild and it had the standard cross head guides top and bottom with the "alligator" type cross head.
(correction: the same type as Southern 401 at Monticello Illinois.)
It was sold to the Morehead and North Fork on May 14, 1952 by the Southern Railway in Princeton, Indiana. Grand Total : $3500.00. This was given to me 1st hand by someone who was there when it happened.

Hopes this answers your curiosity.

Again, Good Job Age of Steam Roundhouse.

JD Johnson, Morehead and North Fork Railroad Historian

Southern seems to have put multiple bearing crossheads on practically every steamer they had in service after ~1938. On the other hand, the N&W tried them on the first runs of A's and J's, didn't like them, and didn't use them on any other power.

Nice work !! As this was one of Jerry's favorite engines I'm sure he's looking down on her under steam with a big smile !!!

Sure is nice to know that thanks to Jerry and Laura Jacobson's generosity that the AOS Foundation will keep the steam flame burning brightly in perpetuity,.... so that future generations can see up close and personal this important piece of our history.

Ross Rowland

I can understand why that was one of Jerry's favorites. I've always liked the looks of it.

.

Southern Railway freight whistle. It's identical to the one currently on 4501, also a Princeton engine.

Robert J - I do not speak for the fine professionals at AOS but, after going through their website several times and taking the tour (which I highly recommend), my take is that the intention is to create a permanent time capsule/repository of steam-era railroading. To do this properly requires not just the equipment and the facility, but also the people and the knowledge. My very limited exposure to shop work taught me that books and data can only go so far in preserving operational knowledge. Some things you just have to do and so the continual process of overhauling the equipment inventory to operation and maintaining it as operable is a key part of preserving steam-era railroading.

Something that should be serious talked about regarding the mission of AoS is articulated steamers. There are many in parks around the country with zero chance of running again due to local economies or lack of demand. AoS is one of the very few places that can make a large articulated fit into its mission and fill a missing spot in its roster of power. Even 1309s sister or one of the yellowstones would be a good fit and not to far away. Most cities can't afford to even paint one of these behemoths so would be more acceptable to let it go to a good home.

Just some food for though.

Great work on the M&NF switcher. She is 1st class and every rail fan should feel a sense of pride to see her like this. That is the work you guys do, bring railfans and forge them into a more unified voice and work like that and what UP does shows that we are entering a renaissance of steam preservation in the US. IMO

Thanks, Scranton Yard, for your astute observations and accurate reply to Robert J's questions. Let me elaborate a little.

In case anyone has not noticed, we've been busy building this AoSRH facility, starting in 2009 with an empty corn field. In addition to construction and on-going maintenance to these new structures, we have been acquiring rolling stock and installing the machine tools and people that are necessary to carry out restoration of our railroad equipment.

We have rebuilt and restored both steam and diesel locomotives, freight cars, cabooses and passenger cars--both cosmetically and operationally--as stationary exhibits, for use on photo freights, and for use by local railroad companies. We have fired-up steamers and taken them out onto neighboring Genesee & Wyoming for photo freight usage and to just chug up and down their track for fun. Just because you did not hear about these operations does not mean that we are inactive. We are sensitive to G&W's liability concerns about railfans trespassing on its property to shoot their photos of our trains, so we do not publicize every rail move that we make.

When the time is right, we'll let people know about future AoSRH steam freight train operations that might involve G&W's main line, but we do not want to sour G&W against AoSRH because of some inconsiderate railfans crawling all over G&W's property.

Under FRA rules steamers have only 15 years or 1,472 operating days (whichever comes first) to run. The last of our operational steamers ran out of time earlier this year and had to be sidelined for that eventual, lengthy, FRA-mandated, tear-down boiler inspection. We had been working on M&NF 0-6-0 #12 for the past few years so that we would continue to have an operational steamer on our property, and #12 is now filling that need. With that being accomplished, we are rebuilding two other steamers that both have time remaining on their 15-year time limit.

In the meantime, new, young AoSRH shop people are getting on-the-job training as to how to do the machine tool work to make or repair locomotive parts, as well as all the other one-thousand-and-one other details in rebuilding a formerly derelict locomotive for safe operation under steam. We are attempting to pass these old skills on to a new generation of shop workers.

With the passing of Jerry Jacobson during 2017, we'll be doing some things differently next year, but rest assured that we know what we're doing, even if you don't.

Be safe.

John B. Corns
Age of Steam Roundhouse
Sugarcreek, Ohio