Steam & Excursion > History of 2-4-2 #5

This is the story of one locomotive.

In 1946, the Central Illinois Public Service Company resumed work on a new coal-fired electrical generating plant at Meredosia, Illinois.  Construction had begun early during the Second World War, but work was ordered to a halt due to the war effort in 1942.  As work progressed, C.I.P.S. ordered a new locomotive from H.K. Porter to switch the new plant.  The locomotive would bear construction number 7995, and would become C.I.P.S. #5.  She would be the last 2-4-2T constructed by Porter.
 
1. It’s likely that somewhere out there exists a photograph of the locomotive in operation at Meredosia, but as of yet I have not unearthed one.  However, some photos have been found of the locomotive stored out of service at Meredosia.  This photo was taken by R.H. Carlson, scanned from a print in my collection.
 
2. In 1965, C.I.P.S. donated #5 and Vulcan 0-4-0T #6 to the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in North Freedom, Wisconsin.  In this photo, #5 is seen coupled to #6 in 1969.  #5 never ran at North Freedom, and with a builder’s date of 1946 she was not in keeping with the museum’s focus on the 1885-1915 timeframe.  The photo was taken by Richard J. Anderson, scanned from a negative in my collection.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/20 09:50 by MaryMcPherson.

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A college professor from the Milwaukee Institute of Technology stopped by the museum, and was taken with little #5.  Hugh Crane and two partners went on to found American Rail Heritage Ltd., which inked a deal with the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad to haul tourists over the old Carbondale District between Marion and Crainville, Illinois, as the Crab Orchard & Egyptian Railroad.  Crane arranged to purchase #5 and have her shipped to Marion to be the motive power of his new operation.
 
3. Herb Soberg (left) and Hugh Crane stand with their newly acquired locomotive, with is loaded on a flatcar and cut into a Chicago & North Western local getting ready to depart North Freedom.  Mr. Soberg later related that getting the locomotive ready to move and loaded on the car was the coldest he had ever been in his life.  The photo was taken in December, 1972, and was scanned from a negative in the CO&E archives.
 
4. In transit to Marion in an ICG local at what we believe is Carterville, Illinois, #5 made the last twenty miles to her new home in Marion on her own wheels.  The photo was taken in February, 1973, and was scanned from a negative in the CO&E archives.  The sign reads “I’m going home; So. Illinois I’ll roam.”
 
5. #5 has arrived in Marion in this February, 1973, photo scanned from the CO&E archives.  She would be operating in only three short months.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

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6. The Crab Orchard & Egyptian acquired six recently retired Illinois Central electric commuter trailers for its passenger car fleet.  The cars needed little work, and #5 was also in reasonable shape.  Everything was ready for the inaugural run on Memorial Day, May 29, 1973.  This Carl Sorgen photo shows the maiden voyage of the Crab Orchard & Egyptian’s tourist train crossing the Missouri Pacific diamond as it heads west from Marion to the Ordill wye at Crainville.
 
7. This Carl Sorgen photo, dated September 12, 1973, shows the Crab Orchard & Egyptian as it was in its first season.  #5 is departing the Marion depot with a two-car train, with an operating stand pipe and coal loader standing by on the house track.  If you look closely, you will notice a coal tender parked alongside the depot loading dock at the far right.  Still in orange ICG paint, the tender would soon have a two-foot band cut out of it so it would fit with the little 2-4-2.
 
8. On December first, 1973, the Crab Orchard & Egyptian ran a railfan special.  By this time the tender had been modified and mated with #5, which was still in its original tank engine configuration.  This photo by Kevin Anderson catches the locomotive as it is turned on the Ordill wye.  The tourist operation would see the locomotive stop short of the west switch of the wye, cut off, turn on the wye, and then couple to the other end of the train.  Running this way, the locomotive would run forward one round trip and backward the next; there was no place to turn the engine at Marion.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

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9-11.  Over the winter of 1973-1974, #5 was converted from a tank to a tender engine.  In these three photos scanned from negatives in the CO&E archives, work on the conversion is in progress in January, 1974.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

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12. Prior to the start of the 1974 tourist season, the newly rebuilt #5 and a train of five cars was taken out for a photo shoot for publicity images.  This photo from that series shows the train on the east leg of the Ordill wye.  CO&E archive photo.
 
13. In a photo from 1975, #5 is running around her train at the Marion depot.  No photographer’s credit was listed with this slide in my collection.
 
14. In October, 1975, #5 is about to cross Illinois Rt. 148 as the train nears Crainville in this uncredited slide in my collection.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

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15. By September, 1977, the CO&E was preparing to take over freight operations from the ICG.  The railroad between Marion and Crainville was being sold to the city of Marion, with the CO&E operating over the line through a lease-to-own agreement.  With the line from Crainville to Carbondale being abandoned, a connection was built in Marion to allow the CO&E to interchange with the Missouri Pacific.  This photo from the CO&E archives shows #5 stopped on the newly built interchange as a pair of passenger cars stand by.
 
16. The date is October 18, 1977, and #5 is locking couplers with the first CO&E freight train.  The diesels of the MoPac local have pulled in the clear, and #5 has backed onto MoPac trackage to grab her cars.
 
17. Hugh Crane looks pleased in the cab of #5 with the first freight train.  Both of these photos were scanned from slides in the CO&E archives.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

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18. This 1978 slide from the CO&E archives shows #5 at P&S Grain at the eastern end of the line.  Hugh Crane’s sense of humor came to play with this business when he said they handled so much chicken feed that the railroad was known as the Chicken Chow Mainline.
 
19-20. #5 heads west out of Marion on a snowy day in February, 1978, in a pair of slides scanned from the CO&E archives.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

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21. On September 23, 1978, #5 is on the Illinois Central Gulf mainline at Carbondale.  Governor James Thompson was running for reelection that year, and he rented #5, two of the coaches, and railroad founder Bill Schreiber’s former IC business car #3 for a whistle-stop campaign train the next day.  In this shot, the locomotive is taking coal from a front-end loader alongside the long out of service North Yard coal towers on the southbound deadhead run.  This photo was scanned from a Bill Wylde slide in my collection.
 
22. After taking coal, #5 pulled ahead and a fire hose was run to a hydrant to take water.  CO&E archive photo.
 
23. The next morning, #5 and the campaign train are pulling to a stop at the passenger platforms at the Cairo station.  Evidently Governor Thompson’s supporters didn’t get the message about not stepping on the rail!  CO&E archive photo.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

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Great thread.  I had never before seen her in her original 2-4-2T configuration.

Martin

24. Crab Orchard & Egyptian #5 running up the mainline of the Illinois Central Gulf with the Thompson Campaign train on September 24th, 1978.  Jerry Mart took this photo at Makanda, Illinois.
 
25. John Dziobko caught this photo of the Thompson Train at Elkville, Illinois.  This would be a last hurrah of sorts for the passenger era of the Crab Orchard & Egyptian, as the railroad would throw in the towel and go freight only in less than two months.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

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26. This Jerry Mart photo was published in a Trains Magazine article with the caption reading this was the final passenger train to leave Marion in October, 1978.  Either the date was wrong, or this was not the final passenger train.  Either way, a close look shows that an empty piggyback flat is the last car on the train.  After freight service began, many trains ran as mixed trains.
 
27. On October 18, 1978, passengers are along for the ride as #5 spots an empty bulkhead flatcar on the interchange before continuing on to the burned-out depot.  After the June 15, 1977, fire that gutted the depot, trains continued to call at the depot’s platform even as the ticket office was moved into a caboose.  CO&E archive photo.
 
28. On November 5th, 1978, the tour train is at the Ordill wye.  The brakeman at the end of the second coach suggests a flatcar is being cut off the train.  Perhaps this was the last passenger run, and the Jerry Mart photo was misdated?  CO&E archive photo.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

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29. Following the end of passenger service, #5 would remain the railroad’s primary locomotive for but another half-a-year.  By June, restoration work was nearly complete on 2-8-0 #17.  #17 would become the primary locomotive by July, and #5 was retired soon after.  In this scene, #17 is running #5 around the Ordill wye.  The railroad had adopted a practice in which in-service locomotives faced west and out-of-service locomotives faced east.  #5 is being turned to face east, and she would be parked in Marion until her eventual sale.  This photo was scanned from a Mike Wise slide in my collection.
 
30. This is #5 as I first knew her: stored out of service alongside the enginehouse in Marion.  I took this photo with a Kodak disc camera on July 22nd, 1983.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

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31. Leaving Marion and bound for Jackson, Missouri, in May, 1985, #5 and two of the coaches are cut into the MoPac local at Marion. CO&E archive photo.
 
32. Now working for the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern tourist line at Jackson, Missouri, #5 makes a photo run on a mixed train during Railfan Day on November 7, 1987.  This uncredited slide was scanned from my collection: the photo I took of this runby was… well… crap.
 
33. On September 28, 1990, a long cut of freight cars were cut in between #5 and the passenger cars during Railfan Day.  At a gravel county road, the train made a photo run.  Kevin Dudenbostle took this photo, scanned from a slide in my collection.  I was riding the cab on this run, and was well up the track to the left of frame at this runby.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

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34. By the turn of the century, #5 was pretty much finished as an operating locomotive.  When I took this photo in February, 1999, the locomotive was looking pretty run down.  She would operate for the last time in 2000.
 
35. This is what #5 looked like when I stopped by on May 11, 2009.  The cab was removed and cut into several pieces out of frame to the left.
 
36. On April 2, 2016, the boiler was marked to do an ultrasound test to see if a restoration was feasible.  The boiler failed the test, effectively ending any chance that the engine will ever run again.  The question today is whether she will even get a cosmetic restoration.
 
Short of someone with deep pockets stepping in, it is a sad end to a locomotive with a notable history.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

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Thank you Mary, for that complete and interesting history of that locomotive.  You are becoming a steam encylopedia of interesting history.

That's a marvelous thread, Mary, with an interesting narrative accompanied by very nice photographs.
 

Great post, Mary.

Did the ex-IC MU trailers get converted to standard couplers?

Did they run passenger trains in winter and if so what did they do (if anything) for heat?

Great work Mary, pleased to see so complete an accounting of a loco I've always found interesting but not seen much about. I do have a "thing" for tank engines with lead and trailing trucks especially those not built specifically for the longing industry. Most would not consider this one handsome but I actually liked the "all business" look before the saddle tank was lost and the piston valves with walschaerts help indicate how late was the build date. Those four short drivers where we might typically expect to see six (due to the relatively long wheelbase...) also contribute to the somewhat "unusual" proportions. I also appreciate the image showing the tender in place before the the "conversion" was completed and while not "as built" it still captures a brief period of the locomotive's operating history that speaks very much to that era in the tourist rail business.

I'd always expected both of the ex-CO&E locomotives to see better futures than befell them. Of course funding is the reality and while the #17 was never expected to be restored it seemed that with #5 being so much smaller it had a decent shot. I never knew the boiler was found to be beyond repair and so ends that discussion. Thanks again for the fine effort.     



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/31/20 00:30 by grizzledgary.

filmteknik Wrote:
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> Did the ex-IC MU trailers get converted to
> standard couplers?
Yes.  Hugh Crane worked up a drawbar conversion which, I'm told but can't verify, was not only used by the CO&E, but was used by ICG to haul the retired cars headed to scrap.

> Did they run passenger trains in winter and if so
> what did they do (if anything) for heat?
The winter was the off-season for the tourist trains.  This is why it was surprising to find shots of the train operating in November.  Those may have been charters, though.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

grizzledgary Wrote:
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> Of course funding is the reality and while
> the #17 was never expected to be restored it
> seemed that with #5 being so much smaller it had a
> decent shot.

In the case of #17, she had some bad luck.  When she left Marion, she needed a new dry pipe and was coming due for new flues.  Some boiler work was attempted at Dupo, Illinois, while the locomotive was enroute to Boone.  That boondoggle did more harm than good, and on arrival she needed more expensive work than was anticipated when she was inspected in Marion.  B&SV instead got the Chinese Mike.  The Strasburg came calling, looking both at #17 and #475.  Strasburg wanted both, but the asking price was too steep.  Had #17 gone to Pennsylvania, she would have likely been running for a quarter-century now.

In the case of #5, restoration may have been going on today... IF she had been shut down properly.  Water was allowed to get in the boiler, and over the course of the last two decades the damage was done.  Had the boiler passed, she needed A LOT of metal replaced in the tender if not an entirely new body.  She also needed a completely new cab; for some reason someone cut the original into pieces before measurements were made.  It would have been an uphill climb, but would have been doable.  Look at Skookum!

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/31/20 07:28 by MaryMcPherson.