Interesting article crossed my desk about a proposed steel museum at the Northwestern Wire & Steel plant in Sterling. Is thi8s the same plant that was home to the GTW 0-8-0s? If so, might it not be a perfect home for one of IRM's hangar queens?



Steel museum proposed
eledbetter@rypn.org

> Interesting article crossed my desk about a
> proposed steel museum at the Northwestern
> Wire & Steel plant in Sterling. Is thi8s
> the same plant that was home to the GTW
> 0-8-0s? If so, might it not be a perfect
> home for one of IRM's hangar queens?

Yes indeed, it is the same Northwestern Steel & Wire Company where so many fine locomotives met their end. I agree that it would be a splendid location for one of those 0-8-0's.

kevin.r.gillespie@verizon.net

> Yes indeed, it is the same Northwestern
> Steel & Wire Company where so many fine
> locomotives met their end. I agree that it
> would be a splendid location for one of
> those 0-8-0's.

One of the NWS&W (ex-GTW) 0-8-0's was placed on display in Sterling at the Paul W. Dillon Home, along with a caboose of some kind. I seem to recall reading someplace that this locomotive was moved elsewhere. Can anyone confirm that? And if it was, what happened to the caboose? If the 0-8-0 WAS moved, why would the people of Sterling want another one (probably in much worse condition than the one they already had)?

midlandblb@cs.com

> One of the NWS&W (ex-GTW) 0-8-0's was
> placed on display in Sterling at the Paul W.
> Dillon Home, along with a caboose of some
> kind. I seem to recall reading someplace
> that this locomotive was moved elsewhere.
> Can anyone confirm that?

Les,
she was still there last year.

My in-laws are from Sterling, and my father-in-law is a former employee of NWS&W. He worked there for a week! Says it was way too hot and way too dangerous.

Sterling could really use this museum, it's a neat old town.



SJHussar@aol.com

> Les,
> she was still there last year.

> My in-laws are from Sterling, and my
> father-in-law is a former employee of
> NWS&W. He worked there for a week! Says
> it was way too hot and way too dangerous.

> Sterling could really use this museum, it's
> a neat old town.

Stephen:

Thanks for the info and the photo. Looks as if the old girl could use a little bit of TLC. Anyone know the story on the caboose; what railroad she came from and her road number?

Les


midlandblb@cs.com

SJHussar@aol.com

Les,
Looks like a Mopac hack to me.

I did the "Dead 0-8-0" tour a year ago on my Harley. Visited all the former GTW 0-8-0s extant in northern Illinois. Those included the one at Amboy (next to the old IC depot which is now a museum), the derelicts at Galt, IL, the one at the Dillon home in Sterling/Rock Falls, IL, and I rode past IRM at Union, IL, just to say I had been in the proximity of the final one. It is a toss-up between the IRM loco and the Galt loco as to which one of the lot is in the best shape.....and that is not saying too much.

Don C.

http://www.261.com
milw261@sbcglobal.net

Cutting up a CB&Q 2-10-4. If they were still doing this today, I'm not sure we could take it.

http://www.cvrma.org/pictures/MISC/dfrr4094_burlington_6316_sterling_il_1962.jpg
ryarger@rypn.org

> Cutting up a CB&Q 2-10-4. If they were
> still doing this today, I'm not sure we
> could take it.

Neither could the EPA ...that ain't snow sifting down. At current scrap prices and current wages and current abatement costs you certainly wouldn't make any money at it!


lamontdc@adelphia.net

> Neither could the EPA ...that ain't snow
> sifting down. At current scrap prices and
> current wages and current abatement costs
> you certainly wouldn't make any money at it!

What if the EPA had been around in the late 1950's and the early 1960's and the general public knew then what it knows now about the dangers of asbestos? How would all of those locomotive been disposed of.......or would they have been cut-up so fast? Something would have had to been done with them but what? Look at the hub-bub in Minot over Soo Line 730, and she is only one locomotive. Would there still be deadlines wasting away in railroad property because they would not have been worth scrapping with the asbestos abatement problems and costs? Time for Sherman and Mr. Peabody to get out the "way-back" machine and provide inquiring minds with some answers. Anyone want to venture a guess? And that "Q" 2-10-4 was the unfortunate 6316....

Don C.

http://www.261.com
milw261@sbcglobal.net

> What if the EPA had been around in the late
> 1950's and the early 1960's and the general
> public knew then what it knows now about the
> dangers of asbestos?

Brings to mind one of my favorite stories ... I was busily unscrewing parts (with permission of course) from the last car of a 30 car string of coaches and RPOs in a scrapyard near Youngstown. A worker appeared busily spreading kerosene on the floor and his only comment was ... times up! ... As I exited he flipped in a fusee and up went the string. Another great site was the NYC ouside of Ashtabula where they regularly burned several hundred cars at a time. Just think how much smarter we have all grown since then ?????

lamontdc@adelphia.net

Stephen:

Thanks for the additonal photo of the caboose at the Dillon Home Museum in Sterling. I'm going to take a guess here; Missouri Pacific. Anybody know for sure? Also, I doubt that NWS&W actually used a caboose at their steel plant in Sterling. I would think that the caboose was taken off of the scrap line and lettered for Northwestern Steel & Wire just to be displayed with the 0-8-0. Anyone know that for sure?

Les

midlandblb@cs.com