It has been on display at the Carlton County Fairgrounds in Barnum, MN since 1968: https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews ... ocomotive/

They also acquired the NP caboose displayed with it. What's the number of that?

First of all, it's terrific that the Wisconsin Great Northern is getting D&NE #27 (DM&IR #348) along with the NP bay window caboose. Would be great if they eventually try to restore the Consolidaton to service, but a cosmetic restoration would also be welcome. One thing I noticed in the TRAINS story is that it appears that the 2-8-0 and caboose were offered to other museums and that the equipment was really in danger of being scrapped. This is the first I heard about the folks up there in Minnesota offering the equipment and I wonder where this "offer" appeared? Was it on the pages of RyPN? Somewhere else? Did some museums get contacted, say no, and then not let others in rail preservation know? The fact that the 2-8-0 and this rare caboose could have met the scrappers torch, gives me the "willies"!

Les

The thing that is VERY important for ALL of us to remember:

Just because a museum has railroad rolling stock and artifacts DOES NOT make it a "railroad museum," and there is no guarantee that anyone in the museum's administration understands railroad preservation, understands the objects in the proper context of history and preservation, or even truly understands what the hell they have or WHY. This is particularly common for smaller local museums where the impetus to preserve the loco/caboose/depot/etc. was three generations ago, the "movers and shakers" who brought it/them there have long ago died, and the current membership focuses on genealogy and old photos/books. This is also particularly true for communities who have a steam locomotive in a park, fairground, etc. donated 60-80 years ago now.

Given MY experience with such museums and local societies across the nation, it is completely NOT surprising to me that such a museum didn't know of or find railroad museums or groups to reach out to. Rail museums and preservation groups usually operate in parallel universes to local history museums, much to my chagrin, and to be honest I too often find that even rail preservation groups too often are blissfully unaware of each other even when they share common general goals. We are too often the "nerds" that don't associate or "play well with others."

Instances like this are why it is imperative for railfan groups large and small to make their existence known to small non-rail museums like this, be it the local county historical society in a former rail depot or the city with a steam loco or caboose in the park. Offer interpretive help, or photos, or a repainting project. Give them reason to CARE about these relics, or someday we'll hear about another "unwanted" display, this time being scrapped with no notice.........

Well said ADM. The article on the 2-6-2 in Canada gives the impression that the BOD is clueless. It is a newspaper article, so much might of been left out. But the lack of reasoning sounds like what you are talking about.
Regards, John.

I thought Northern Pacific mainly used cupola cabooses, are you sure it's ex-NP?

NP 1500 series bay window cabooses were rebuilt from old wood box cars.

Here's a photo of one in regular service and in its Northern Pacific lettering:

www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2232393



Les

Would be nice to see it stay under cover somewhere.

It was decided to separate the boiler and frame for transport: https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews ... -northern/

Greetings:
I find it ironic that a locomotive which has been under cover for decades is disposed of because it's building needs work.
However, metal buildings with wood frames do not last much beyond the guarantee they came with: Illinois Railway Museum spends a good deal on their 15(?) buildings every year replacing roof and side panels as well as renewing the bottoms of uprights and trusses.
If you can afford it, an all steel building on a concrete foundation will last far longer.
Pole barns might be the cheapest, however the per foot price on them has doubled in the last five years. The barn that will be built this year (Barn 15(?) will cost twice as much as the last big barn built at IRM.
J.David

That's funny, I grew up in rural Illinois and those buildings were ubiquitous then, especially on farms. We called them "Morton buildings" in the seventies after the company in Morton IL (near Peoria), Morton Buildings, that was an originator and major supplier. They could be put together by farmers etc. by themselves and were very popular, my dad (not a carpenter) and about a dozen other guys helped a farmer friend put one up that was used for machine storage and a place to work on equipment in the winter. The amount of beer consumed during that task likely could be measured in the thousands.

As I recall they were held together with nails that looked like roofing nails but had a soft rubber washer on them to keep water from coming in around them, particularly on the roof, and of course after being out in the sun for a few decades the washers fell apart. I witnessed an approximately 100' long shed I had seen built around 1977 right next to the Santa Fe main line having all those nails replaced by a crew when I was back there in 2000 (it belonged to a trucking/ ag. service company, it had a truck wash in one end, which they were using to wash out the tanks on straight tank trucks that spread pesticides from movable booms, which led to a huge EPA fine BTW). That building was still standing and in use, unrepainted, the last time I was back in 2012. I don't recall ever seeing the metal part deteriorate on those sheds, the paint applied from the factory seemed to be very durable.

I have had my pole barn made into my shop for 35 years. Paint is faded and roof is now getting rusty where I should paint it. This pole barn building was erected in the early 1970s from what I was told. The only thing done to it so far is I had to rehang the big sliding doors. But the uprights have shifted up in two corners by quite a bit since I poured concrete floor. The building serves it purpose well and had for 50 plus years. As has the mid continent engine house. But you don't want to look to closely at the uprights.

A concrete foundation would be the real ticket depending on what kind of ground you have to work with. The cost has gone nuts to build a metal shed. I put a steel roof on my house 10-15 years ago for a little more than a commercial shingle roof. I just put a steel roof on a chicken coop that cost me close to $300 and that was materials only. Regards, John.

In the part of Illinois I am from, which was scoured by the glaciers and thus quite flat, they typically put the shed on a raised mound with sloping sides, somewhere around 5' above the surrounding ground, with white rock (crushed dolomite) as a bed and floor of the building, usually next to a ditch for drainage. I have seen 50yo posts that look new in those conditions.