| Former Grand Trunk and Western #4070 sits with some of her drive wheels removed.The 4070 was built by American Locomotive (builders #60310) in Schenectady, NY for the Grand Trunk Western railroad. It is a USRA (United States Railroad Administration), light Mikado-type with a 2-8-2 wheel arrangement. There are two small wheels on the pony truck in front; eight large (63 inch) driving wheels in the middle, and two smaller wheels underneath the cab. The 4070 spent most of its working life in Michigan although GTW operations extended to Toledo, Ohio and into Indiana and Illinois. It even stood as the back-up engine to Harry Truman's presidential campaign train. The 4070 served the GTW well. March 27, 1960, was the official date of "dieselization" and the 4070 hauled her last GTW freight on March 29, 1960, which may have also been the last time the GTW ran steam freight. GTW sold 4070 and it sat in Michigan until 1966 when MRPS acquired it on a 5-year lease. It was moved to Chicago where it ran excursions from Chicago to Valparaiso and South Bend, IN in 1968 to celebrate its 50th birthday . After those trips, the 4070 made trips in various parts of Pennsylvania, eventually finding a home at Conneaut Lake Park. It spent several seasons there before returning to Cleveland and a temporary home underneath the Terminal Tower along with MRPS' passenger cars. In 1971, MRPS purchased the 4070 and, around 1975, it was moved to the roundhouse in Cleveland's "flats". In 1975, the MRPS began using the 4070 and its passenger cars on the newly-created Cuyahoga Valley Line. The excursion operation ran on weekends, leaving from a city park near the zoo and traveling, via the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad tracks, to Hale Farm in Bath, Ohio, and onto Quaker Square in Akron. The 4070 continued to run on the Cuyahoga Valley Line until mechanical problems sidelined her in 1990. Few know that even though 4070 made her first run unassisted, she was being painted even while raising steam for the trip from Chicago to South Bend and that on that first run she ran into so many difficulties (having not had proper shakedown runs) that they almost blew her up from low water....She limped into Valpo dead slow so as to not slosh the water off the crown sheet at about ten PM with reduced fire and the injectors would not pick up. They had the hose up and into the tank before the train came to a complete stop. You should have heard that empty,revernberating "Boom" when the hatch hit the top of the tank being opened for the hose. There was a palpable sigh of relief when the injectors picked up and there was still an engine left. (that is the crucial moment.."cold" water on a hot crown sheet) The crew did a magnificent engine management job that day and few have ever said thanks to who ever they were.... She was lame too, and spent many subsequent trial getting the valve gear set right. After all the bugs were worked out, this became a wonderful excursion engine. The MRPS is hoping to restore her in the near future. This will require a hefty financial contribution, and good old fashion hard physical labor on the part of the MRPS members. |