A steam locomotive hidden among carousels and pipe organs

On the first evening of the Association of Tourist Railroad and Railway Museums conference in northern Illinois, I joined other participants at the magnificent and awe inspiring Sanfilippo Estate.

Steam locomotive No. 18, a 2-6-0, was convereted from narrow gauge to standard gauge for use at the Ford Motor Co. factory. Jim Wrinn photo

This collection, housed in multiple buildings in a park-like setting in the northwest suburbs of Chicago contains an incredible collection of, in its own words, “beautifully restored antique music machines, phonographs, arcade and gambling machines, chandeliers, art glass, the world's largest restored theatre pipe organ, the most spectacular European salon carousel in existence, street and tower clocks, steam engines, and other functional mechanical antiques, displayed within a breathtaking French Second Empire setting.”

A look inside the smokebox reveals an unusual petticoat pipe damper. It is controlled by a reach rod in the cab. Jim Wrinn photo

That, if anything is an understatement. After having listened to the 8,000-pipe organ play everything from Phantom of the Opera to the Star Wars theme, I am a believer.

But hidden in and among all of this musical and mechanical grandeur is a steam locomotive. No. 18, a 2-6-0, is offered up as a 1881 Grant product that passed through Ford Motor Co.’s River Rouge complex in Dearborn, Mich., where it was converted from narrow gauge to standard gauge. It was later a display at the Henry Ford Museum at Greenfield Village. There’s also a wood caboose and a coach, but the steam locomotive is certainly an interesting story that would be worth investigating. It’s all clean, with gleaming brass and shiny dials. The mechanical geniuses in attendance, and I use that term as a compliment and not a slam, couldn’t resist opening the smokebox door, where they studied a most unusual damper system for the exhaust.

We were told the engine started out on a subsidiary of the Cotton Belt, became a logger, and eventually went through its strange transformation from 3-foot gauge to standard. Such locomotives raise more questions than providing answers, but that’s part of the fun of this interest.

The estate is normally not open to the public, but it hosts numerous special events to benefit non-profit organizations, and I highly recommend the experience for the carousel, the pipe organ, and, yes, the steam locomotive hidden in the middle of it all in plain view.