Need a Junker 4-4-0

[Master of Big Sky Blue]

Sure you don't want a Spectrum 2-10-2 or a 4-8-2

 

I have a Spectrum 4-8-2 (Light) and it runs pretty sweet so its nota candidate for sinking

James

[SteamFreak]

No loco buried off a bridge in this one, but there's a local "Legend" about a Rio Grande L-131 2-8-8-2 caught and buried in the collapse of the original Tennessee Pass tunnel in Colorado just after the opening of the alternate new tunnel during WWII.  Now, THAT would be a loco to dig out, don't you think?

Tom

I've got my shovel ready!

So what do you think Tom, are you prepared to donate some brass to this sinking project? It would turn such a nice shade of green. 

 

[Guilford Guy]

Good grief, thats going to be one deep lake!!!!!

A little story, theres a steam engine in the Wabash river below the old NYC bridge in Terre Haute, IN. which they dump over the side during the hundred year flood back in the 20's or 30's, to keep the bridge from washing out. The story goes they were going to get it out when the river went down but couldn't, to full of mud, so they left it. When the river gets real low you can still see it from the bridge, with permision of course. So it doesn't have to be deep water, just not wourth the effort to do it.

Oh, it save the bridge and it's still used today by CSX

According to steamlocomotives.com http://www.steamlocomotive.com/lists/IN.shtml there are 3 steamers down there.

[Robteed]

I have a locomotive buried out back almost in my back yard. My grandmother used to tell me of a locomotive that fell off the tracks and sank into the marsh. The ground was so soft it sank away and could not be recovered. Its called Chandlers marsh in East Lansin Michigan. There is a bunch of student housing built up in the area which is called "The Landings". There is a huge field here which up until recently was a sod farm and is now a corn field. I spent some time researching it and if I'm right the date was 1869. My grandmother said that townsfolk laughed at the idea of running the tracks through the Marsh and after the derailment the railroad moved the tracks further north to what is now the corner of Chandler Rd and State Rd.

[Kyle]

At the bottom of Kerr lake in North Carolina, the is a steam locomotive.  Before there was a lake, a bridge went across a river.  The bridge was damaged in a forest fire, so the two brothers who operated the locomotive came up with an idea.  They would stop before the bridge and one would walk to the other side, then the other would open the throttle and jump off.  When the locomotive got to the other side, the first one would jump on and stop the train, and wait for the second one to walk across.  They did this for awhile with out incedent.  Finally the bridge was repaired so they decided to go across in the locomotive.  Sadly, the bridge failed sending the brothers and the locomotive to a watery grave.  The locomotive was never recovered because it went deep into the mud.  Locals use to swim down and ring the bell, but then the dam was built, and it is now under sixty feet of water.

[hon30critter]

I know this is an old thread but the recent posts about sunken engines bring up an interesting topic, i.e. lost engines.

We have a local legend of a lost train.

I live close to Tottenham, Ontario where the South Simcoe Railway runs 4-4-0 #136 that is, if memory serves correctly, 135 years old and has been operating for all of its life, save for downtime to do boiler rebuilds etc. It was used in the Pierre Burton TV series called "The National Dream: Building the Impossible Railway" and it travelled the whole distance from Tottenham to British Columbia under its own power to film the series. That was in 1974.

http://southsimcoerailway.ca/  

Here is a link to the TV series. It was very well done.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_National_Dream_%28TV_miniseries%29

Unfortuneatly the SSR website seems to be a little outdated in some places, and lacks a lot of information about steamer #136.

Anyhow, I digress. Sorry.

When you take the train from Tottenham to Beeton the conductor tells a story about a steam engine that disappeared in the fog one day while running on the same track. Supposedly it fell into a creek and sank without a trace. They have a lot of fun with the story. At one point the conductor tells the passengers that the whistle of the lost train can still be heard, at which point the engineer toots a few times. The creek is barely big enough to sink a wheelbarrow let alone a steam engine and train. Its all malarky of course but it adds a lot of fun to the excursion.

I saw another wrecked steam engine in Cuba a few years ago, except instead of being sunk in a marsh this one was on prominant display outside our resort. The resort had a railroad theme - rather tacky I might add. At first glance all you saw was an old steamer, but once you studied it a bit you realized that the frame was twisted rather badly and some of the major components were no longer connected as they should have been. I guess that was an example of how to make use of a wreck. Put it on a pedestal and build a huge resort around it! Please remember - no politics!

Dave

EDIT:

I started another thread on the topic of lost engines - both real and imaginary:

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/232451.aspx

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

It's been seven years and I haven't seen any progress photos on this.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Master of Big Sky Blue

Make sure you get to cut the ribbon. How about it Jeff, Up for a Trip to Wyoming?

I don't travel well. Send me the ribbon and I'll cut it.