Thursday, August 09, 2007

Running gear of Rock River Cannonball 4-6-2 steam locomotive. Edgarton Wisconsin USA. September 2006.

My brother in law "Ralph" took this photo for Me, on Labor day weekend in September of 2006. The city of Edgarton Wisconsin, has a miniature railroad with two different size trains, one large and one small operating at the fairgrounds I believe. The event is known as the Rock River Threshers Association -Threshing Bee. Although I have never been here physically, and I don't have much information to write about, I would like to visit this someday. The 18 inch guage locomotive, is modeled after a 4-6-2 Pacific type locomotive. Pacifics were used in passenger service due to their speed and power.
Some railroads like the Illinois Central, The Lehigh Valley, and the Southern Pacific Railroad, used this type of locomotive on freight trains at the end of the steam era. As diesel locomotives took on passenger assignments, these old passenger steam locomotives, now demoted, spent their last working miles on freight trains, commuter runs, or even maintenance of way trains before retirement or scrapping.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The locomotive in your picture runs at Little A-Merrick-A in Marshall, WI, and is 16" gauge.