Steam & Excursion > Monticello museum's 2-8-0

The Monticello (Illinois) Rail Museum's steamer 401 was active last weekend (Oct. 18,19), running excursions between the museum and downtown Monticello. Here it is crossing a small trestle on its return trip to the museum. Note the old Rock Island commuter coach.

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Nice image of a cute little Consolidation.

As background, this locomotive was converted by the museum to burn oil in its last restoration. For those of you familiar with oil burning locomotives, does this seem like a lot of smoke for an oil burner?

Thanks for posting this image. Last week, while participating in several steam charters in Washington and Oregon, a friend of mine and I discussed locomotives we had not yet seen. This locomotive was near the top of the list!

rrhistorian Wrote:

> For those of you familiar with oil burning
> locomotives, does this seem like a lot of smoke
> for an oil burner?

Showing off for the camera!
Light haze should be normal.

Mike

2720 Wrote:
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> rrhistorian Wrote:
>
> Showing off for the camera!
> Light haze should be normal.


That's right. The engineer saw a couple of us waiting to photograph and suddenly there was a lot of smoke.

When I'm shooting at the museum, I'll frequently get with the crew and let them know where I plan to be. Louder stack talk and a more photogenic exhaust are usually the result.

The second train on Sunday provided possibly the best shot I've ever gotten of the 401 on the hill north of Camp Creek, and the first sunshine of the weekend appeared just seconds before the engine popped into view. I almost expected to hear a choral group hitting a heavenly chord as the heavens cleared!

By the way, we are looking at organizing a photo freight charter with the 401 around this time next year.

Mary McPherson
Diverging Clear Productions

The good folks at Monticello know how to do things right. They watch their funds wisely and only invest in projects with a good return on investment both financial and social. Their housekeeping and safety sets an example for other museums to follow.

Keep up the good work Monticello!

exprail

OK, I just gotta ask. Beautiful restoration, sweet little engine, but why is the number on the tender so far above center? Every SR engine I've seen had the number centered vertically.
Don't flame me, just asking to satisfy my OC.

Frisco1522 Wrote:
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> OK, I just gotta ask. Beautiful restoration,
> sweet little engine, but why is the number on the
> tender so far above center? Every SR engine I've
> seen had the number centered vertically.
> Don't flame me, just asking to satisfy my OC.

I wish you hadn't pointed that out.

Slide valves and Walschaert valve gear.

A VERY nice looking engine.

-John

Frisco1522 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> OK, I just gotta ask. Beautiful restoration,
> sweet little engine, but why is the number on the
> tender so far above center? Every SR engine I've
> seen had the number centered vertically.
> Don't flame me, just asking to satisfy my OC.

Hi Don,

A couple of reasons. One, not ALL Southern steam had centered numbers, see http://southern.railfan.net/images/archive/southern/steam/cons/sou398selmamarch1947.html and http://southern.railfan.net/images/archive/southern/steam/cons/h/sou391.html, and http://southern.railfan.net/images/archive/southern/steam/cons/sou1401gaffneysc.html

While I won't argue those may not appear to be quite as high as ours, their current placement on 401 allowed us to only have to mask one row of rivets rather than two when painting. (If you look closely at the above linked 401 photo, you'll note the bottom of the numbers is just above the lower middle row of rivets on the tank.) And for the second reason, the person who funded the entire restoration of the loco handed me a drawing of where he wanted the numbers. I was willing to agree based on the above research of H4 photos. That said, after it was painted, even he agrees they're too high, so one of these days we'll fix that, and in the process we'll put on the correct shade of gold. (Should be slightly darker... SRHA was gifted with actual paint samples of the correct colors, after we'd finished painting it. We were also provided with a copy of Southern's painting diagram for steam, again after it was painted, which show the bottom of the tender numbers to be 27" from the bottom of the tank, regardless of tank size.)

Kent McClure
MRM

Thanks Kent. I'm glad you didn't take offense to my question. I think you guys did a beautiful job on the restoration and she is such a sweet little engine.
I'm used to Frisco lettering, which on all of their tanks they centered the lettering horizontally. I understand what you were saying about masking one vs two rows of lettering. I did all the striping and lettering on 1522 and know what a pain it is.
I need to wander over there and visit your operation and admire the work.

Don Wirth