Can anyone give me any information on the three former New York Elevated Railway 0-4-4Ts that are abandoned in Alaska. When and where were they built. How and when did they get to Alaska. What railroad did they run for in Alaska. Why are they sitting in a mash? Were there tracks there? And why are they still there and who owns them.-Eric

If they are abandoned, that would mean nobody owns them but the land. Resting near Soloman in the tundra; a Baldwin and two built in New York City (New York Locomotive Works). All were purchased by a group intending to build a railroad in the area, but it never happened. The locomotives have sat there for close to a century in the tundra. Their location is probably why nobody has been able to relocate them, if anyone has even ever tried or had interest. All date back to the 1880s. There is another El locomotive somehwere in Louisiana. A "Swamp Engine" is even rumored to exist in a quagmire behind a McDonalds in West Hempstead, NY! Check Doug Bailey's SteamLocomotive.info site, I believe he might have listings for them, perhaps it's another site I'm confused with.

Try this link for a relatively recent photo:http://www.steamlocomotive.info/vlocomotive.cfm?Display=1551The OWNERSHIP button will give you the history.The last owner was the Council City & Solomon River Railroad Co. which was intended to link mines in the Council City area with the Bearing Sea, the port facility being at the mouth of the Solomon River, which is about a hundred yards directly behind me in as I took the photo. When the line failed in 1907 IIRC, the equipment was all marshalled at the dock to await shipment. It's still waiting. It's also still on rail, but the track has slowly sank into the tundra. The locomotives are very rough now, with the cabs completely deteriorated. The boiler on the ground in the middle of the photo was on a wood flatcar which collapsed, allowing the boiler to roll off to the ground. There are several other sets of wood transom flatcar trucks present at the site.I'm not sure who owns this equipment, but I doubt that it is considered abandoned. There is undoubtedly some successor company that owns the mining claim, and they likely still have valid claim to the equipment. Alaska is full of things just sitting around on mining claims, someone up there told me that 90% of everything that was ever brought to Alaska is still there, and I believe it.Anyway, the engines are so far gone, and in an easily accessible spot for viewing (the road from Nome crosses the Solomon River about fifty yards from the engines. They are billed locally as "the railroad to nowhere". I personally think they should stay right where they are now.

A couple of years ago someone from the Alaska DOT contacted me at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis seeking info about Forney elevated locos as part of a project to stabilize these hulks and erect signage about them. I don't know what became of the project, but it suggests the state recognizes their story and may have some claim on them.

Others have covered the history of these engines well; here are the details:F Class #21, New York Locomotive Co. 149/1886F Class #159, New York Locomotive Co. 137/1886E Class #303, Baldwin 5622/1881I also have pictures of these on my Surviving World Steam Locomotive CD-ROM. Besides the rotted cab; many other parts have been robbed over the years. Besides the other equipment mentioned in the area; I have also noticed a steam donkey engine.The one on Lake Verret in Louisiana is:E Class #156 (329), Baldwin 6488/1882Once owned by Napoleon Cypress; the pictures below are from my website and were taken by Dick Gibbens: Another possible example is said to be derelict at Jervis Inlet (S. of Powell River), BC, Canada:F Class? #??, New York Locomotive Co. 168/1887Info from http://members.shaw.ca/preservedsteambc ... .htm-James Hefner Hebrews 10:20a Surviving World Steam Project

some more cool pics of the alaska engines:http://www.tomsnome.com/lasttrain.jpghttp://www.tomsnome.com/trainclose.j ... train4.jpg

That "hoop" that shows prominently in the last photo (it shows in mine as well) is a piece of rail, the base completely eroded away, that was pulled up when the road bridge was built over the river. The rectangular object that shows in some of the photos is a beached barge, and the donkey engine also shows. The only remaining fitting of note is what appears to be a brake valve mounted high on the side of the nearest engine's Belplaire firebox. Other than the new bridge and pulled up rail, the scene is timeless.