I found this photo a while ago of a spare water tender that was in use during the Southern's steam era. I thought it had been most likely scrapped at the end of the steam era but apparently I was wrong. Just last night I found a photo of the same water tender that I would date around the 1980's-1990's. I have not seen this car recently, not even in NS's steam program. What happened to it?

At SERM I believe...

Yes, WT-52 went from NS to the New Georgia Railroad, then went to Southeastern Railway Museum after NGRR shut down in 1994. A quick look at the museum web site found it mentioned but no photo.

Based on available evidence and Jim Wrinn's Steam's Camelot, the second photo was taken at Alexandria, Va. June 13, 1981, during one of two trips Southern ran with CP 1238.

Looks like ex-IC like ours for the 1522 was.

Wow Alexander! Thank you for shedding light on that! I just thought this was taken during the twilight of Southern steam! I thought that that locomotive was Southern's original 1238! It did not make sense to me why such a light pacific had a spare water tender, let alone diesel locomotives on top of that!

Digging up an old post, it looks like Sugar Express has picked up WT-52 from SERM. Sorry for the large image. I just linked to the Facebook photo and it's huge.

I confess that, while I rejoice at its being saved and in operating condition... it sure looked better as a Southern Railway car.