With rods on and a passenger car behind. Any idea where/when?http://www.toltecimages.com/trains/2999.jpg

Bob,since you like to post photos; can you see if you can find a recent one?As we know the Museum of History and Industry moved the Locomotive indoors a few years ago. What does it look like now?Ted Miles

Where is this engine today? I see that it has smaller drivers than it did orginally, different pilot, etc. Were these changes made while it was in active service?RTK

its indoors in hicago at the museu. It looks beautiful.

It's at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago.see: http://www.msichicago.org/exhibit/trans ... ex.htmlSee rare footage of the Empire 999 (Quicktime® 2.5 Meg), the first machine to break the 100 mph barrier.http://www.msichicago.org/exhibit/trans ... 999.movSee inside the Empire 999 with this QuickTime VR spin (525k)http://www.msichicago.org/exhibit/transport/img/Emp999.mov

While I don't have it in front of me, I have a postcard of this shot that reads something akin to "Famous locomotive at the Kentucky Railway Museum". I thought it was a misprint at first, but isn't that the "Jim Crow" combine that is/was owned by KRM and used behind the General during its tours? I've come to think this was a tour of some sort the engine went on.I'm suprised that MSI Chicago doesn't have a photograph of the 999 on display inside on their website, its quite impressive, even if lacking the correct drive wheels.Dave Crosby

Now that the KRM is mentioned, I remember seeing the engine down there about plus or minus 1956, or so. The museum was a required place to visit when the family visited my mom's sister in Louisville. Somewhere I've a half-century old black and white photo of me sitting in the cab grinning like a Cheshire cat.

Here's a picture I took last July when we were at the Museum of Science and Industry:This angle is really the only good one that's avaiable for photos. With a wall on the far side, Craig Breedlove's salt flats racer on the other (behind my back), a model railroad behind the engine, and a Boeing 727 above it, it's a little tight for space.

Yes, the 999 visited the KRM at it's first location, in Eva Bandaman Park, along River Road in Louisville. In the postcard view, 999 is coupled, not to the Jim Crow combine, but the Virginian Railway private car "Dixie." Sadly, the Dixie didn't survive the flood that inundated the museum in 1965 or 1966. Pretty much all of the wooden equipment that was at the site at the time slowly succumbed to rot from the Ohio River silt that the flood waters deposited in the cars. Despite careful cleaning, all of the cars literally rotted from the inside out. Other victims of the flood included 2 wooden baggage cars and a wooden caboose. The Jim Crow car was away, with the General at the time. I can't remember exactly when 999 visited, but I think it was 1959 or 1960. It visited for a few months at the opening of the season. Other "opening day" guests in the early years of the KRM included C&O 377 and Southern’s recreated "Best Friend."

Dave,

Thanks for the picture. She sure looks better indoors than outside the museum getting rain and snowed on!

Ted Miles