The last photo of the group is the engine which interest me the most. I suspect from the markings that it may be a demonstrator. It carries no railroad name, only #50000



........mld

A very famous Alco steam locomotive, 50,000th loco built by Alco. It was eventually sold to the Erie as their 2509, and was in service until about 1949. 50,000 was built to test out some of Francis Cole's theories about improving steam locomotive performance; Cole was Alco's chief design engineer.

The story of 50,000 is covered in detail, in the Withuhn book "American Steam Locomotives, Design and Development 1880-1960", pages 132-149. Highly recommended reading for those interested in steam locomotives.

Howard P.

November 1952 Trains has a nice two-page spread on this loco, with a lot of interesting detail.

Scrapped in March 1950 at Luntz in Warren, Ohio.