L&N 796

Trainkid456 · **Joined:** Thu May 05, 2016 6:30 pm **Posts:** 240

Hi,

I visited the L&N Depot Museum in Bowling Green, KY today. They have a nice display including a C&NW E8A dressed up as L&N 796. It was used on the Kalamazoo, Lake Shore & Chicago Railway in Michigan for a few years but the KLS&C stopped operating in the early 1990s. The L&N museum got it in 2008. Does anyone know where this unit went after the KLS&C?

Thomas

NS 3322 · **Posted:** Tue Mar 26, 2019 11:45 pm

Trainkid456 wrote:

Hi,

I visited the L&N Depot Museum in Bowling Green, KY today. They have a nice display including a C&NW E8A dressed up as L&N 796. It was used on the Kalamazoo, Lake Shore & Chicago Railway in Michigan for a few years but the KLS&C stopped operating in the early 1990s. The L&N museum got it in 2008. Does anyone know where this unit went after the KLS&C?

Thomas

Thomas,

You have just answered a question I have had for many years. Thanks!
I did not realize the unit in Bowling Green and the KLS&C unit were one in the same!

I happened to run across some information on this locomotive posted on Facebook a few months ago:

Robert Welke wrote:

The KLS&C E unit was leased from Northern Railcar, who had purchased it from METRA (as part of a deal for six HEP equipped E's). Painted red with yellow stripes and renumbered 95, it served for only a short time before it suffered a fire in the HEP equipment which destroyed that and the #2 engine electrical cabinet, along with other damage.

It was brought back to Horicon for repairs (which the KLS&C couldn't afford) and eventually became a parts source and provided many parts specific to E-units to keep the WSOR 10A and 10C running. Eventually what was left was sold to Mineral Range Inc, who brokered it.

As an interesting twist, the passenger equipment used by the KLS&C was the former Scenic Rail Dining train that NRCC got back for non-payment after Transisco Tours went bankrupt, which also brought their three F/FP45's 1001-1003 to the WSOR as part of the payment for money owed.

As a further twist, since NRCC refused to supply another HEP equipped unit, the KLS&C leased ex-Milwaukee FP7 #96A from Glen Monhart (it had been in service on the Wisconsin & Calumet) to pull the train and after Glen's death, the 96A would become WSOR 71A...small world!

This unit sat at the Arkansas Railroad Museum for a long time as MRAX #513. The locomotive is a shell.
http://railpictures.net/photo/116770/

Trainkid456 · **Joined:** Thu May 05, 2016 6:30 pm **Posts:** 240

Thank you for your help. Yes, the interior is gutted. They have a small theatre inside of it now that plays a short film on the history of E units.

I explored the KLS&C ROW through Paw Paw a couple years ago and I was very surprised when I found out that this engine once ran there.

Thomas

NS 3322 · **Posted:** Wed Mar 27, 2019 12:00 pm

Trainkid456 wrote:

Thank you for your help. Yes, the interior is gutted. They have a small theatre inside of it now that plays a short film on the history of E units.

I explored the KLS&C ROW through Paw Paw a couple years ago and I was very surprised when I found out that this engine once ran there.

No problem! The KLS&C operation was certainly a very interesting one.

Interesting that they are using the E Unit as a theater.

ctjacks · **Posted:** Wed Mar 27, 2019 2:30 pm

If anyone wonders, the 3 domes in the above photo became part of UP's excursion fleet in the mid-1990s, when Drew Lewis as CEO built it back up. They are the 3 cars with the fancy wood decorations in the interiors that don't match the (more prototypical) interiors on the rest of the fleet.

70000 · **Posted:** Wed Mar 27, 2019 2:33 pm

Looks like I photographed the loco (or the back end of it...) in June 2000 when it was at Horicon.....

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