According to:

http://lostengines.railfan.net/galt.shtml

...it's going to Quincy, IL. Anyone know (a) who owned it before, and (b) who bought it?

Well, I'm not sure who bought it, or exactly where in Quincy it's going, but as for who owned it before, that I do know. Illinois Railway Museum owned it, along with the other two ex-NWS&W, ex-GTW 0-8-0's. They also own the ex-KCS vanderbilt tender that was (is?) located there at Galt.

Les

Cool. I had seen that IRM owned them at one time, but figured they were no longer theirs, as I couldn't find any good current info. Thanks!

When the steel mill was in operation and switching with steam power did they have a fully equipped shop?

They had an engine house in a mill building, but I don't think they had any real steam-maintenance equipment. I doubt they ever dropped out an axle or turned a wheel. These were the worst-maintained engines I've ever seen. There was a stack of new cylinder heads, to replace the ones they'd break out when the wedges got so loose the axles would migrate forward and the piston would crash into the head. Broken side rods were repaired by welding a length of I-beam in between torched-off rod eyes. The GTW's unique floating-bushing driver boxes were lubed by throwing Coolax sticks in between the journal and the bushing.

Aarne Frobom

Dear Aarne:
While it is true that the NWS&W locomotive shop was pretty much devoid of equipment, they did have a wheel drop pit with an gas station type lift in it. And they did use it to drop wheels, which were sent to a central machine shop that worked on everything in the mill. Tires were turned and changed out on a regular basis. Oddly, towards the end, they made their own tires from blank rolled steel rings.
Larry Cain, a former CB&Q machinist, was in charge of the locomotives. He knew a fair amount about steam locomotives, but all the work was done by millwrights who didn't (and could care less, the locomotive shop was a bid job and nobody wanted to work there). Many of the more creative repairs made to the locomotives occured at night or on weekends when Larry was off. Usually the mill needed three locomotives 24/7 and if one broke and their wasn't another one ready to fill in, the millwrongs did what ever they felt like to make the locomotive function again.
One of their favorite fixes was to torch cut off siderods that gave them any trouble. Many engine reports would state something like "busted back crank pin left side, cut rods, ran three legged rest of shift".
Through a weird series of events IRM was given virtually all of the 0-8-0s and all of the parts on hand. I prepared and moved two of the locomotives (on their own wheels) to museums using the NWS&W shop facilities.
No.80 (8380) was the only locomotive I ever moved which scared me. I moved it from Sterling to Union (via the C&NW mainline as far as West Chicago). As it went down the track, at about 25 MPH and above it would begin to vibrate, the vibrations increasing until the whole locomotive was shaking so violently that you couldn't stand in the cab. Then it would suddenly stop vibrating for a moment only to begine again. Parts of the locomotive were actually coming loose. At Dixon(?) I told the crew I needed to work on the locomotive so they set me off on a siding. I measured the driver diameters with a tape measure and found that they were all different (under FRA they are supposed to be within 3/32" on a pair, no more than 5/32" variation for the whole set). I figured that dropping the side rods would help a bit. And it did, but the engine was "happy" only when going no more than 20MPH. After asking to be set off yet again, I talked to the trainmaster and we decided that the way to "get over the road" was to have the local freight move us slowly 20-25 miles each day, leaving the locomotive in a convient siding until the next day. Eventually I got the locomotive to Union (where one of my "loose cannons" cut the NWS&W number plate into small pieces because I thought it would be neat to display the locomotive as NWS&W rather than GTW, a whole other story).
J.David

The IRM Steam Department is working to formulate a plan for moving the remaining KCS Vanderbilt tender from the site in Galt, IL to the museum campus in Union. The plan is to use a crane to remove the tender frame and body off the trucks and place it onto a trailer. The trucks, hardware, and brake rigging will be moved using another trailer and will be put back under the tender at the museum. This plan depends upon decent weather and may have to wait for next spring to be completed.

The remaining 0-6-0 on the site does not belong to IRM. I am not sure as to who the owner of this locomotive is or why it hasn't been moved. Stay tuned to the departments blog at www.irmsteamteam.com for updates on this project as well as other happening in and around the steam shop.

Matthew Dowd
IRM Steam Department

Matthew -

Good to hear that there are plans to get the KCS tender moved to IRM. I assume you meant to say the remaining 0-8-0 rather than "remaining 0-6-0" at Galt and that you were talking about the 8305.

I just wondered how long it has been now since IRM operated steam at Union. Do you have any idea?

Les

Thanks to Mr. Conrad for mentioning this thread again. Brings up two questions:

1. Did GTW 8305 ever get moved to Quincy, Illinois and if so, to where?

2. Did IRM ever bring the ex-KCS Vanderbilt tender to Union?

I could also ask J. David for his story on displaying GTW 8380 as a NWS&W engine, but I won't bring it up at this time.

Les

Can't seem to get an answer to these two questions. Anyone?

Les

Les,

Only took four years to answer your question! I stopped by Galt yesterday. The 05 is still there (without tender), and is the only piece of equipment left on the property. Photos to follow.

Jeff Terry

As I intimated in an April 1 post, I wish the Virginia Transportation Museum would get one (this one or another) and cosmetically restore it as an N&W S-1a.

Jeff -

I had long suspected that that might be the story. Look forward to seeing your photographs. Thanks for following up.


Les

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