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The Age of Steam Roundhouse Museum in Sugarcreek, Ohio, has completed its cosmetic restoration of Bessemer & Lake Erie 2-10-4 643. The locomotive will make its public debut on March 29, during Age of Steam’s Member Day. 

Locomotive 643 was built by Baldwin in 1944, but it only ran in regular service for about eight years. Thankfully, the locomotive was preserved by B&LE in the roundhouse in Greenville, Pa. In the 1980s, it was sold to a private individual who kicked off an effort to restore it to operation. While a lot of work was completed by the late 1990s, the locomotive never ran and the owner kept it in storage for decades. In 2019, Age of Steam purchased it in tribute to its founder, Jerry Joe Jacobson, who had long dreamed of acquiring the locomotive he had dubbed “The King.” The locomotive was moved in pieces to Ohio in early 2024. 

In the year since the locomotive has been reassembled and painted. It is now on display inside the roundhouse alongside 22 other steam locomotives. Visit Age of Steam’s website for additional information. —Justin Franz 

The post Cosmetic Restoration of B&LE 643 Completed appeared first on Railfan & Railroad Magazine.

Six passengers and a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority employee had to be rescued by boat on Tuesday after the historic streetcar they were riding ran into a “wall of water” near Milton, Mass.

At approximately 7:30 a.m., water from the Neponset River quickly began to flood the right-of-way of the Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line, a 2.6-mile transit line that serves the south side of Boston and connects with MBTA’s Red Line. The operator later told officials that the water came quickly and the trolley lost power soon after entering the flood waters. Members of the Milton, Mass., Fire Department were called in and deployed an inflatable boat to get the seven people on board to higher ground. MBTA suspended the streetcar service afterward and had buses operating between Mattapan and Ashmont. Regular streetcar service resumed later in the day. Officials said the flooding was caused by an ice dam.

The Mattapan Line is one of the last traditional streetcar lines in the country using PCCs and it’s also the only line to have never stopped using the iconic cars. —Justin Franz 

The post Passengers Rescued By Boat After Boston Trolley Hits ‘Wall of Water’ appeared first on Railfan & Railroad Magazine.

Union Pacific announced on President’s Day that it was painting a locomotive in tribute to President Abraham Lincoln. The locomotive, numbered 1616, will be officially unveiled later this spring. 

“America’s history is Union Pacific’s history,” said Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena. “By signing the Pacific Railway Act of 1862, President Lincoln created our railroad and ignited The Great Race to connect the country and fuel the economy – roles our industry still plays today.”

Locomotive 1616 will be the second unit UP has painted to honor a U.S. president, following 4141, which honored President George H.W. Bush. That unit led Bush’s funeral train in 2018 and is now on display at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station, Tex.

This year marks President Lincoln’s 216th birthday. The locomotive is expected to tour the system this year. The engine is being painted red, brown and black, a nod to the colors worn by UP 4-4-0 119 at Promontory, Utah, when the First Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869. —Justin Franz 

The post UP Unveils Design for Locomotive to Celebrate President Lincoln appeared first on Railfan & Railroad Magazine.

The East Board Top has acquired a diesel locomotive from the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. The 80-ton H.K. Porter locomotive, currently numbered 1203, arrived at the Pennsylvania railroad earlier this month and will serve as a backup for EBT’s steam locomotives. 

“The acquisition of this locomotive boosts our capacity for efficient operations,” said EBT Foundation General Manager Brad Esposito. “While the restoration and operation of our historic steam locomotives remains the Foundation’s primary focus, the growth of our business and expansion of our footprint demands greater flexibility in our motive power.”

The locomotive was built in 1946 for U.S. Gypsum’s operation in Plaster City, Calif. The locomotive worked in California until 1979 when it was sold to the Huckleberry Railroad in Michigan. In 2005, it was sold to the Georgetown Loop and then traded to the D&SNG in 2017. 

EBT plans to renumber the locomotive to 19 and repaint it to better match its fleet. In return for the diesel locomotive, D&SNG got two EBT hopper cars. 

The post East Broad Top Acquires Diesel From Durango & Silverton appeared first on Railfan & Railroad Magazine.

Hot on the heals of the 2nd EP for the 63xx Mogul, Dapol have also released images of the 2nd EP for the N Gauge 78xx Manor.

First announced at the 2024 International N Gauge show, the Manor is the 3rd all new design steam locomotive from Dapol, and will feature the same high specification as the Mogul and Bulleid Light Pacific.

As with the Mogul, improvements have been made to the location and size of the boiler split, in addition to rivet details now being included. Dapol also expect to share the finalised liveries and artwork for the manors in the next few days.

• Diecast boiler

• Diecast footplate

• Appropriate Buffer types 

• Tall vacuum pipe on the tender 

• Lower vacuum on the locomotive 

• Smoke box number plate for B.R. period

• Highly detailed cab interior 

• Diecast chassis – split frames for live bearing pick-up 

• Blackened nickel plated diecast driving wheels 

• Brass bearings 

• Plastic keeper plate with brake shoe/linkage details 

• Sprung centre driving wheels

• Wheels to NMRA standard 

• Pickup from loco driving wheels and tender

• Coreless motor

• Tender body to be easily removable

• Space for sugar cube speaker in tender

• Firebox glow

• DCC Ready with provision for a NEXT-18 Decoder in the tender

• Locomotive to tender with electrical connections for motor and locomotive pick-up via pin and socket vertically mounted under the cab

For more information visit the Dapol website