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Illinois Central 2613 was a steam locomotive, a 4-8-2 "Mountain" built by the Illinois Central Railroad's Paducah, Kentucky shops in 1942. It eventually became notable for pulling fan trips for the Illinois Central in the early 1960s before it was sold for scrap.
History
Engine No. 2613 was built by the Illinois Central's (IC) Paducah, Kentucky shops, as part of the railroad's 2600 class of 4-8-2 "Mountain" type engines, which were built between 1942 and 1943.[1] No. 2613, along with the other 2600 engines, were used to pull heavy freight trains throughout Illinois, Mississippi, and Kentucky.[2] They were widely regarded as one of the largest Mountain type engines ever built.[1]
On October 24, 1959, No. 2613 was leased to the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N), who no longer had steam engines by then, to pull the railroad’s centennial train between Louisville, Kentucky and Nashville, Tennessee.[1] The IC subsequently used No. 2613 to pull a few excursion fan trips of their own on the Kentucky division during 1960, beginning with a Farewell to Steam trip on May 14 between Louisville and Paducah, Kentucky.[1][2]
During this time, 2-10-2 locomotive No. 2739 was kept operable inside the Paducah Roundhouse as backup power for whenever No. 2613 broke down, but it never ran.[2] On October 2, 1960, No. 2613 was refueled for the final time at Central City, Kentucky.[3] It then pulled an excursion from Louisville to Dawson Springs, Kentucky and back.[3]
After the excursion, the Kentucky Railway Museum (KRM) met with IC officials to try to save the locomotive, but due to only being started up a few years prior, they were unable to raise the scrap price that the IC demanded to save the locomotive.[3] No. 2613 was subsequently scrapped in 1961, but its tender remained intact.[3]
Later, Chicago area railfan, Richard “Dick” Jensen, acquired the tender, along with a tender from fellow 2600 Class locomotive No. 2612, and he moved it to the Chicago, West Pullman and Southern (CWP&S) Railroad for storage. He had plans of using both tenders behind Burlington Route locomotives Nos. 4963 and 5632, but as he fell into financial trouble in the 1970s, he fell behind on rent to store the tenders on the CWP&S.
In 1981, the CWP&S gave up on collecting rent from Jensen, and they acquired the tenders, along with York Southern Railroad 4-6-0 No. 1, as compensation.[4] They subsequently sold the tenders and No. 1 at a sheriff auction to William Latham of Rockford, Illinois.[4]
Latham had planned to create a small railroad museum with the engine and tenders, but this plan had fallen through, and No. 1 was eventually donated to the Monticello Railway Museum in June 2000.[4] A Monticello member tried to secure one of the IC tenders from the Rockford collection for preservation, but after the efforts fell through, and both IC tenders were scrapped in 2011.
See also
References
- 1 2 3 4 "Illinois Central 4-8-2 "Mountain" Locomotives in the USA". www.steamlocomotive.com. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
- 1 2 3 Downey, Clifford J. (2010). Kentucky and the Illinois Central Railroad. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-6661-0.
- 1 2 3 4 Bogart, Charles H. (2014-11-23). Railroads 40s & 50s. Lulu.com. ISBN 978-1-312-70059-8.
- 1 2 3 "Mississippi Eastern 303". Monticello Railway Museum. Retrieved 2023-03-25.