TREGO, Wis. – The Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad has added steam locomotives to its expanding railroad company. The former Duluth & Northeastern 2-8-0 No. 27 will be relocated from the exhibit hall at the Carleton County Fairgrounds in Burnham, Minn., where it has been on display since 1968.
Great Northern, Wisconsin is known for its ongoing restoration work. mark twain zephyrpurchased the locomotive from Carleton County, which wanted to dispose of the Consolidation because it was aging and the county could no longer afford to maintain it. The company offered the locomotive free of charge to organizations willing to pay for the locomotive’s move, but said it may scrap the 2-8-0 if it can’t find a new home. WGN has entered.
“This locomotive had been offered to a local museum, but we had heard rumors that it was in danger of being scrapped because the museum was unable to handle the process of moving the locomotive,” WGN President Greg Vreeland said by phone. I spoke on the phone.Interview train news wire. “I called the president of the Carleton County Fair Association Board of Directors and was assured that he was considering removing this document in some way.
“The important part at this point, and job number one, is to get the locomotive fixed and running. Once the current project is complete, mark twain zephyrWe will then thoroughly examine Unit 27 and optionally return her for surgery. ”
No. 27 was built by Arco Pittsburgh in June 1907 as No. 348 for the Duluth, Misabe and Northern Railroad. The 1937 merger of the Duluth, Misabe and Northern Railway with the Duluth, Misabe and Northern Railway became the Duluth, Misabe and Iron Range Railroad No. 348. Spirit Lake Transfer Railroad. DM&IR sold the engine in 1955 to Short Line Duluth & Northeastern in Cloquet, Minnesota, where it was renumbered 27. The D&NE was well known to steam fans as one of the last short line railroads in the United States to operate steam locomotives without converting to steam locomotives. After dieselization, No. 27 was stored at Cloquet until donated to Carleton County. No. 348/27 is a sister locomotive to DM&IR 2-8-0 No. 332 (formerly D&NE No. 28) operated by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum and operated on the North Shore Scenic Railway from Duluth, Minnesota. is operating.
“This is an important addition to our collection in that the WGN houses five large former Duluth, Misabe and Iron Range Railroad passenger cars,” Vreeland said.
WGN crews will today (April 15) move the locomotive from its current storage onto three track panels where it will be ready for trucking to the Wisconsin Great Northern. Once on track, the cab and boiler are removed and loaded onto a heavy-duty tractor-trailer rig. The running gear will be his second load and the tender will be his third load. Burnham is located approximately halfway between Hinckley and Duluth, Minnesota, approximately 140 miles by most direct road route from WGN’s headquarters in Trego.
Acquisitions included a World War II North Pacific caboose that was converted from a wooden boxcar to a bay window caboose.
— Updated at 12:40 p.m. Central Time to add a paragraph about the locomotive’s history.
