There is a new photo on George Elwood's magnificent FALLEN FLAGS website of an Atlantic Coast Line 2-10-2 (# 7402) supposedly taken in May of 1947 in Landers Yard. The Landers Yard I am familiar with is on the south side of Chicago and was the principal yard for the Wabash Railroad in the Windy City. My GUESS is that this 2-10-2, which is far away from its home rails, was on its way to the Chicago & Illinois Midland, which purchased and used a number of ex-ACL 2-10-2's. What is curious about this photo though is that # 7402 has a full load of coal in its tender. Which brings up two questions:1. Would the Wabash have used the 2-10-2 in regular train service to get it to Landers? My guess is that they did not, but I don't know for sure.2. If not, were locomotives sold by one railroad to another for future service, normally shipped with a full load of coal? I would welcome opinions from anyone as to the answers to either of these questions. Thanks.Les Beckman (Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum/North Judson, Indiana)

Were used locomotives shipped with a full load of coal? Depends on whether the bunker was full or empty when the engine was set aside and sold, and whether there were people around to shovel the coal back into the coal dock. On the ACL in 1947, probably no one needed another load of coal that much.To determine whether the engine in your photo was hauled dead or worked in service to its new owner, look at the crosshead. If the piston rod is visible, then the engine was working. If the engine was hauled as freight, the pistons were probably in the coal bunker. (Or, if the bunker was full, lashed to the running boards or tender deck).

here is the pic:http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/acl/acl-s7402ajg.jpg

That doesn't look like one of the engines that the C&IM bought. If memory serves, weren't they USRA 2-10-2s with Vanderbilt tenders?This one looks like it may be in service as the rods, etc, are all up, the cab window open, etc. Are you sure it's actually where they said it was?

Aarne's right-- that is not one of the engines that went to C&IM.According to R. Prince's ACL book, that is a former AB&C (Atlanta Birmingham & Coast) loco, originally built for AB&A (Atlanta, Birmingham & Atlantic) as AB&A 402, BLW 1917, c/n 45709. Sold for scrap 5/30/52. A couple of interesting items on this one-- the thick driver tires to bring 57" drivers up to 63" dia ones, and the tender-- looks almost N&W-ish, and Commonwealth six-wheel trucks!!ACL bought AB&C in 1946 and inherited three of these things, along with a bunch of FEC 4-6-2s and two FEC 4-8-2s.I have seen numerous references to charges for things like coal, or labor to empty coal bunkers, when locomotives were sold/leased in the steam era. The coal was worth more than the 47 1/2-cent-per-hour laborers that had to shovel it out-- and the railroad back then mindset was to shovel it out, even if it took two guys all day. Nowadays, I see brand-new $45 7x9 track ties lost too far down embankments (when being unloaded from the tie train) to easily retrieve with a tie crane, and the foreman doesn't want to send two guys and a tie tong after them-- the perception is the men cost more than the tie.

This is only hearsay.Len Smolsky, once General Manager of the New Hope & Ivyland, and Reading Company fireman in the mid 1950s, told me of the transfer of 1 steam and 8 Diesel locomotives between Abrams and Rutherford Yards, Pa. near the end of the steam era. The Reading Company had the steam loco (a T-1?) pull the 8 Diesels dead-in-tow because that was easier than preparing the steamer to be towed. Published accounts of Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines Race Track Specials to Atlantic City Race Track mention that the steam engine crews from 3 trains would couple the locos together to run light 12 miles back and forth to the nearest turntable (Atlantic City), so some of the men could relax a bit.

Jim:That wasn't only hearsay (RDG transfer move)-- there was a "Steam News Photo" of it in Trains, about 1961-62. It was 2100 or 2124, being moved for a trip, and the diesel switchers were due for monthly inspections. Why waste a crew, going in the right direction, anyway?HP

This occured in the spring of 1962, if I recall, when 2100 had taken an Iron Horse Ramble from Philadelphia to Rutherford, where 2102 took over for the rest of the trip to Gettysburg and return. 2100 took a string of diesels headed for Reading for 30-day inspection in tow for the trip back. There was a photo in Trains magazine sometime that summer.