Greetings...A dozen years ago I purchased a black & white cabinet photo, 8 x 9.25", mounted to a card, 8.75 x 10.5".It shows engine No. 516 on a turntable at a maintenance facility.
Written in ballpoint ink on the rear:"This picture is a Cotton Belt Engine / About 1920 at Commerce, Texas. This is / one of the 1st Super Heaters bought / by St.L & SW Ry and the 1st Engine / on the turn table operated by steam. Previously the turn table was operated by hand. / The 516 was wrecked between Commerce & Sulphur Spring [ two unreadable words ]."
The unreadable words may be "Turning over."This wreck would have been on a 20 mile stretch NE of Dallas.
An identical photo (albeit cropped) was used on-line to publicize the 16th Annual Cotton Belt Regional Railroad Symposium ( Oct 01 2022 ):
https://allevents.in/mobile/amp-event.php?event_id=200023330473211
I accept the writer's technical notes on 516 as gospel but would like more information on the subsequent wreck.
Especially the year and circumstances of the event.Any help this board can offer would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.Murdock-149
Welcome!
Your link ends up in ERROR.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Murdock-149 Greetings...A dozen years ago I purchased a black & white cabinet photo, 8 x 9.25", mounted to a card, 8.75 x 10.5".It shows engine No. 516 on a turntable at a maintenance facility. Written in ballpoint ink on the rear:"This picture is a Cotton Belt Engine / About 1920 at Commerce, Texas. This is / one of the 1st Super Heaters bought / by St.L & SW Ry and the 1st Engine / on the turn table operated by steam. Previously the turn table was operated by hand. / The 516 was wrecked between Commerce & Sulphur Spring [ two unreadable words ]." The unreadable words may be "Turning over."This wreck would have been on a 20 mile stretch NE of Dallas. An identical photo (albeit cropped) was used on-line to publicize the 16th Annual Cotton Belt Regional Railroad Symposium ( Oct 01 2022 ): https://allevents.in/mobile/amp-event.php?event_id=200023330473211 I accept the writer's technical notes on 516 as gospel but would like more information on the subsequent wreck. Especially the year and circumstances of the event.Any help this board can offer would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.Murdock-149
The photo collection that has this photo is currently being migrated. See Local History & Genealogy — Commerce Public Library (ploud.net) It's part of the TAMU-Commerce Heirloom Project.
Ed in Kentucky
Since you are a new member. Make sure you take advantage of the option to PM, private email
This option will appear on the upper right hand of your discussion thread. Ed said he might PM you. But I see he has posted to you.
PM is a handy way of chatting when a post is of no concern to the rest of the people who post comments. Glad you are "on board" (pun intended) with us. endmrw1712221445
Cotton Belt MP104... PM is a handy way of chatting when a post is of no concern to the rest of the people who post comments. Glad you are "on board" (pun intended) with us. endmrw1712221445
When PM's work. I hasn't been working to create new PM's for the past serveral months.
BaltACD THANKS endmrw1712221616 Cotton Belt MP104 ... PM is a handy way of chatting when a post is of no concern to the rest of the people who post comments. Glad you are "on board" (pun intended) with us. endmrw1712221445 When PM's work. I hasn't been working to create new PM's for the past serveral months.
Cotton Belt MP104 ... PM is a handy way of chatting when a post is of no concern to the rest of the people who post comments. Glad you are "on board" (pun intended) with us. endmrw1712221445
New PMs are impossible to start due to a formatting or security glitch in the forum software, which makes the text-entry box keep opening downward to infinity without unlocking to let you start typing text. Kalmbach Media refuses to explain the situation, provide workarounds, or (as they promised years ago) replace the damaged code as part of what they called 'stage three' of the trains.com Web presence.
A workaround is to e-mail someone on the Forum who already has a PM conversation open with the recipient. This can then be cut and pasted into the reply to an 'existing' conversation, and opened and read that way. If that includes a reply e-mail address, which can be a 'burner' address, the recipient can reply 'direct' in reasonable confidence.
It's possible that there may be something about the wreck at the Commerce Public Library Special Collections. The #516 had a long career for the Cotton Belt serving from February 1909 when it was built as Baldwin #33220 until it was retired on September 12, 1947 by sale to the SP of Mexico. Other than the time it worked the 516 was just another member of the G2 class of consolidations. It was converted to oil firing sometime after 1923. It is reported in the 1932 Folio 725 Locomotive diagram as an oil burner.
See G2 class Locobase 16158 for additional details.St Louis Southwestern 2-8-0 "Consolidation" Locomotives in the USA (steamlocomotive.com)
It is very possible that the wreck in the early 1920s was due to poor track condition. The Cotton Belt applied for and got extra funds for Maintenance of Way from its USRA settlement in early 1920. It was 1922 and later when daily Cotton Belt ballast trains began operating out of the Britton Gravel Pit near Camden on the Ouachita.
Murdock,
If anyone can help you w/SSW info it will be Ed.
How he got his "handle" SSW9389 is an interesting story. Since he lives no where near the fallen flag rails, and where his roots are, why in the world is he so knowledgable and interested in Cotton Belt. That is an interesting story.
That said, I was curious as to why you have interest in this wreck. Maybe an interesting story there also? Glad Ed has given you information. He is one super reasearcher as we have worked together and I have seen his uncovering info. endmrw2012221012
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