Welcome back to my list of the top ten retired steam excursion stars.
This part of the video will cover entries five, four, and three, so sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.
This powerful 2-8-2 Mikado locomotive was built in 1917 by the Canadian Locomotive Company for the Canadian Government Railways, numbered as 2854.
The next year, that railway merged with the Canadian Northern Railway, and so the Canadian National Railway was born, and 2854 was renumbered to, of course, 3254.
It was used to handle heavy freight until it's retirement in 1958.
In 1961, the 3254 was bought by Willis F. Baron, a motel owner, and as a result was moved to Ashland, Pennsylvania.
His plan was to run the locomotive through the Reading Company's branch line that served the town, but the line was torn up before his plans could come to fruition.
As a result, the locomotive was disassembled, transported by truck, and then reassembled at his motel for display.
3254 was sold to the Gettysburg Railroad in 1982, and in 1987, was traded by Steamtown for Canadian Pacific 4-6-2 1278 and some cash.
3254 was restored to operational condition at Steamtown and ran mainline excursion trips with Steamtown's operational collection, such as Baldwin 26 and Canadian Pacific 2317.
Unfortunately, in 2012, 3254 was discovered to have some serious frame issues that required major attention, prompting an indefinite retirement.
For the next 3 years, Steamtown was left without an operational steam locomotive of their own and had to borrow some for special events, such as Reading & Northern 425 in 2013 and Nickel Plate 765 in 2015.
Boston and Maine 4-6-2 3713 is currently being restored to running condition and will be 3254's replacement.
Fortunately, 3254 is still on static display in Steamtown's roundhouse with Nickel Plate 759 mentioned earlier.
And one of the locomotives running mates, Baldwin 26, has already been restored to operating condition, running short yard shuttle trains as the Scranton Limited.
Another C&O, survivor this mighty 4-8-4 was built by Lima Locomotive Works in June 1948 for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
After only four years in service, the locomotive was retired and stored in a Kentucky roundhouse for over two decades.
During the time she sat, a power shortage, as in a shortage in motive power, caused the C&O to lease another 4-8-4 from the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomic Railroad, also numbered 614.
To avoid confusion, C&O renumbered their 614 to 611.
During 1976, the locomotive was cosmetically restored and sent to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum for display.
After former Reading T1 2101 was crippled in a roundhouse fire (more on that later), the owner of the locomotive, Ross Rowland, offered to trade 614 to the Chessie System and restore that to operation
And display 2101 at the B&O Museum, where it resides today.
The 614 was restored over the course of 18 months with $1.5 million spent.
The first major run of the locomotive was for the Chessie Safety Express, a system-wide tour designed to promote grade crossing safety.
After the Safety Express, 614 was kept in Hagerstown, Maryland until 1985.
During that year, a major project for Rowland was beginning to take shape, and could change American railroads forever.
In the mid-1980s, Ross Rowland began a new project for his new company, American Coal Enterprise, known as the ACE 3000 project.
The end goal was to build a new coal-fired steam locomotive from the ground up to reduce dependency on foreign oil.
614, now 614-T, symbolizing test, was used as a test engine for the project, and was therefore modified with testing equipment to measure the locomotive's performance.
Throughout January and February 1985, 614-T hauled 4,000-ton coal trains between Hungtington and Hinton, West Virginia.
When it was all said and done, 614 got amazing data, and its fuel consumption costs were actually lower than most diesels at that time.
Unfortunately, oil prices plummeted soon after, and the nation's railroads dropped their support.
The ACE 3000 project was then canceled, and Nickel Plate 765, on the left, took over all of 614's passenger duties until the end of steam on CSX.
After CSX ended their steam program in 1993, 614 was moved to the New Hope & Ivyland railroad in Pennsylvania to be completely overhauled.
From 1996 to 1998, the 614 ran trips from Hoboken, New Jersey to Port Jervis, New York. On these trips she was allowed to run loose, reaching 70 or even 80 miles per hour.
And by the way, for your safety, please never stand as close to a train moving that fast.
Anyway, after these trips were done, 614 was stored at the Reading & Northern Railroad in Port Clinton, Pennsylvania.
In 2000, Rowland put the 614 up for auction at the New Jersey Transit facility, but no buyers were interested.
In 2010, talks between Rowland and Jim Justice, owner of the Greenbrier Resort at that time, began.
Justice was interested in running steam-powered excursions between Greenbrier and Washington, D.C.
With 614 painted up as the Greenbrier Presidential Express in 2011 to promote the excursions. Plans included for the locomotive to be restored back to running condition to run the trains.
Unfortunately, the Greenbrier presidential Express was canceled soon after due to a lack of funding and capacity problems along CSX's portion of the rout.
The diesels and passenger cars were auctioned off, and today, 614 continues to sit on display in Clifton Forge, Virginia
The 614's website says that the locomotive may be restored to running condition again if funds are raised, so hopefully 614 will return to steam again very soon.
One of only two remaining K4s Pacifics of a staggering 425 built, 1361 was built in the Pennsylvania's own Altoona Works in 1918.
The locomotive hauled mainline passenger and mail trains until its well-deserved retirement in 1956. She clocked an estimated 2.5 million miles during service.
On June 8 of the following year, 1361 was dedicated and placed on display at the world-famous Horseshoe Curve in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
1361 sat at the curve until 1985, when it was taken back to the Altoona Works to be restored running condition. It was replaced at the curve by a former Pennsylvania GP9 no. 7048, which still resides at the curve today.
In 1987, the 1361 was back under steam once again and began hauling excursions.
That December, the Pennsylvania General Assembly designated 1361, as well as the other surviving K4, 3750, as the official state steam locomotives.
Unfortunately, 1361's triumph wasn't to last much longer.
Just one year after her restoration, the main bearing and drive axle suffered a catastrophic failure, which put the locomotive out of service.
In 1996, 1361 was dismantled and moved to Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where it was to be restored to running condition once again.
After an initial grant of $420,000, the governor of Pennsylvania at that time, Tom Ridge, released an additional $600,000 in March of 2000.
This restoration slowed exponentially because, quote, "Every broken pin and bolt had to be replaced with handmade duplicates."
Completion dates kept getting pushed back, and after 13 years, the restoration had cost Steamtown $1.7 million.
Finally, in April of 2010, Steamtown cancelled their initial plans for 1361, but their alternate plan was quite unusual.
Rather than doing a full rebuild of 1361 and putting into excursion service, it was decided that the locomotive would be put on semi-static display.
This meant that the locomotive would be rebuilt to the point where the boiler could still be fired and the locomotive could operate at low speeds.
The restoration was eventually canceled entirely, and by 2013, the locomotive had left Steamtown.
The frame, tender, and other small components were stored at the Railroaders Memorial Museum in Altoona, and the boiler was stored at the East Broad Top Railroad in Rockhill Furnace, Pennsylvania.
Fortunately, there is a light at the end of the tunnel for 1361.
In 2015, the Railroaders Memorial Museum had completed construction of their "quarter roundhouse", and moved the rest of 1361 there for restoration.
The locomotive is currently being worked on by a dedicated team of four people, with an estimated cost of $700,000.
All the work that's left on 1361 consists of boiler and firebox work, and after the work on that is completed, there is a chance that 1361 will steam once again.
We're down to our final two entries, so to see what locomotives get the top two spots, please head over to part three.
