The Fate of the Last of the Breed?

[CopCarSS]

One of the places I visited while on my last midwestern trek was the bit of rail where the 0-8-0's from Northwestern Steel and Wire have been seemingly left to be reclaimed by Mother Nature as she sees fit.

You may recall that NSW was the very last place running steam in regular working service, til about 1980-1981 (a fact that always frustrated me, since I was born in 1980...I lived in their era, but never got to experience them running).

On previous visits, the units always looked about like so:









However, much to my surprise, on this visit, the first locomotive looked like this:



Some of the work seemed fairly in depth, but it some places it seemed not quite so much (like the quick and dirty paint job over the boiler lagging, rust and all). The bricks from the brick arch in the firebox were neatly stacked like so:



And most curiously, "Ken Marks" was spray painted on a con rod, as such:



Does anybody know the fate of this unit, and possibly her sister? I think there may have once been a 3rd unit here, too. I'm thinking that it may have gone to Amboy, IL, and is the unit on display there. Also, I'm curious if anybody knows who Ken Marks is.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[DPD1]

Interesting... I try to keep up on that area, and I had no idea that was sitting out somewhere.

Dave
-DPD Productions - Featuring the TrainTenna LP Gain RR Scanner Antenna-
http://eje.railfan.net/dpdp/

[Anonymous]

They sat in this order, NSW #74 then #30 and lastly #05. Evidently, #30 was sold for display in November of 2000 to Buchanan County Visitors Center in Independence, IA. Don't know about #05. Kinda want to know what's up with #74, as well!

I was 9yrs old when my grandfather took me to see the NSW locomotives in action. The memories of the place are very fuzzy, but I do remember those things made a whole lot more noise than the diesels at home!

[nanaimo73]

Here are some shots of IC 30 in Independance-
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locThumbs.aspx?id=34057

[mvlandsw]

Steam engines are not referred to as "units".

[Anonymous]

Is it small enough to qualify as a "teakettle"?

[Anonymous]

Not sure how far you are into the research on this locomotive, CopCarSS, but from a picture over at railpictures.net, it states that this locomotive was purchased by a collector from Nebraska and that he is disassembling it and transporting it to his home. Maybe the photographer can give you more info?

Here is the link to the photo and caption:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=123626