Cotton Belt steam locomotive 819

[legsbluetrain]

I'll be glad when they get Cotton Belt 819 back running again.It's currently in the Arkansas Railroad Museum.

[arkansasrailfan]

It's probably not going to run again, because UP won't let them run on UP, plus there are not enough volunteers to restore, which is sad.
This my opinion by the way.

[Anonymous]

There is a train show coming up at the 819 shops about April 5th in this year.

I hope to be able to learn more about 819.

The previous poster is correct, there is UP rails all around and no friendly rails to run that engine on. An option will be to dead tow that engine as a peice of freight to friendly rails and then run.

Last year, she has quite some work left to do I dont think she will be running any time soon. The museum replaced part of thier shop roof last year which cost many thousands of dollars that I hear in hearsay.

If I dont make it to the show this year I will probably hear from other locals who do get there. This is not a engine you can just climb aboard and run anywhere you want to. There is so much that needs to be done, not just to the engine but also to the crew that will (If ever) operate her.

Yes the 819 is looking pretty good and yes there are people still living who remember her back in revenue service and yes she is in the same shop that built her in the wartime years. But UP and other problems prevent her from having a chance of running again.

When she did run years ago, it was a brute and a fine one at that.

[arkansasrailfan]

I'm going to the show-because I'm a vendor):-)
And notice that we're all Arkansans.
814s tender is by 819.
To educate you(Falls Valley) on some about the 819, here are some facts.
800-809 were Baldwins
810-819 were homebuilt, but the boilers came from Baldwin, the bearings from Timkin, the tender, frames, trucks minus wheels,General Steel castings
engines known as class L1a.
800-809 were shipped to California to work in commuter service on the SP.
they got scrapped.
810-818 were scrapped, but 814's tender is still here with us.
There is an addon on train-sim.com of the 819, with whistle and bell sound from the engine, and Jack Stone at the throttle.
There, I have given a basic knowledge of some 819 stuff(which is really small, but heck, it's a start)

[SSW9389]

Someday . . .

[SSW9389]

Eleven of the Cotton Belt L1s went to Southern Pacific for further service. They were the 801-802, 804-805, 807-809, 813, 815, 817-818. The Baldwin built L1s were SP Class GS-7 and the Pine Bluff built L1s were SP Class GS-8. Data from Joe Strapac's Cotton Belt Locomotives.

[SSW9389]

C. W. "Red" Standefer with his hand on the reverse lever of an L1 Northern. Red Standefer worked for the Cotton Belt in engine service from 1917-1967 and saw everything from saturated steam to second generation diesels.

 

 

[arkansasrailfan]

Oops, got my info wrong.

[legsbluetrain]

I got videos of the 819.I'll have it on youtube later.

[legsbluetrain]

I have video of it in the museum on Youtube.My user name is legsbluetrain on Youtube.