I recently purchased a copy of Donald R. McQueen's "Canadian National Steam!" and was looking through the section "Preserved Locomotives on the CNR Family" on page 159 and 160. Interestingly, it lists GTW 4070 as sold to the National Museum of Steam Propulsion in Chicago on the date of 6-27-61 and GTW 5629 as sold to the Railway Club of Chicago on 4-04-60. I was always under the impression that Lou Keller and Richard Jensen both bought their locomotives directly from the GTW. Does anyone have any insight for this reason?

Below is a photograph of the page.

I had never heard of this entity before despite being from Illinois originally, and I was only able to find one reference to it, from 1961: https://www.farmcollector.com/steam-tra ... ropulsion/

There were many instances, and even ongoing to the present day, where individuals or tiny groups with grandiose ambitions (or delusions, as the case may be) would start up a "museum" or "association" with nothing more than a press release or printing up cards, never bothering to file for incorporation with authorities.

Many of these did eventually evolve into museums or operations such as Historic Red Clay Valley, Inc. (now the Wilmington & Western Railroad, Greenbank Mill Associates, and others), Steamtown, the Illinois Railway Museum, various NRHS Chapters and their local museums, and other nationally noted museums and preservation efforts. Others "had their moment" and then withered and vanished, or even never gained traction in the first place--witness High Iron Co. and 759, Atlantic Central and their CP 2839, etc. And I dare not mention a certain "Beetlejuice" character whose name is not mentioned here again if we can help it, who kept filing with the STB to operate or take over various other lines (including lines already in passenger operation!) for whatever delusional goals.

If I had to wager, I'd say this "national museum of steam propulsion" sounds like a Dick Jensen project, attempting to give credibility and garner interest and investment beyond Jensen's own pockets. It's an awkward name, you gotta admit.

GTW Dude -

I was a member of the RAILROAD Club of Chicago in those days (Jensen was also a member) and I heard that Dick had purchased the 5629. Never heard a single thing about the Club purchasing the locomotive.

Les

Hi All
Well I have something to add dealing with GTW 4070 & 5629,, more on Disposition of both locomotives.
This information came from the book Canadian National Steam Power by Anthony Clegg & Ray Corley copyright 1969.
On page 58 of the book it shows what was preserve and the locations of the locomotives that got preserved.
Please see attached thank you Pat.

I was doing some casual searching over Flickr a while back when I stumbled across an account by the name of "casslemanfamilyphotos" that had posted multiple home films consisting of GTW steam in the 50's. To my surprise, they had digitized a flyer from one of GTW 6323's excursions. It just so happened this flyer had a little blurb at the bottom which gave a description about the National Museum of Steam Propulsion. Holy cow, I was not expecting what I found.

As a little side note, the President/General Manager of the National Museum of Steam Propulsion was Charles R. Foss A.K.A the author of the book "Evening Before the Diesel" which is widely considered among GTW fans to be one of, if not the greatest book about the GTW ever written.

And on another note, I wonder where those Pontiac roundhouse blueprints went...

Here is a link to casslemanfamilyphotos' Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/35770373@N02/albums/

As was noted earlier, this group sure had grand ambitions, but it may have only been a few or one persons. The Boyne City Railroad referenced in the article was in the northern tip of Michigan and lasted until 1978 https://www.railroadmichigan.com/boynecity.html