The "The Historic Camelback Locomotive" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading my LNP newspaper and as I turned to pages 2-3 I saw it  right away.  There on the top of page three read..."NEXT STOP, OHIO!"  Story told about a circa-1903 Camelback locomotive that has been part of the local Strasburg Railroad Museum fleet since 1962 and operated along the railroad's line until 1967.  It was recently sold to the Age of Steam Roundhouse Museum in Sugar Creek, Ohio.  Had to give my friend Jere a call and ask him about it since he worked part-time at the Strasburg Railroad for quite a few years.  He remembered it and  said it wasn't used that much since it was a different type of engine than Strasburg used to transport passengers on their scenic tours of Amish Country.  Since the article said that the engine arrived in 1962 at the railroad, I pulled up the newspaper's archives and checked to see if I could find anything about its arrival in 1962.  

Photo of the 1903 Camelback Locomotive
as seen in the 1962 Lancaster Newspaper.

Sure enough, an article dated Friday November 9, 1962 told of its arrival in Strasburg.  A part of the story read...The Camel-Back Locomotive was the last of its kind and came into the local railroad yard with it wildly sounding a shrill "toot-toot" and black smoke pouring in a graceful flame from its 59-year-old stack.  The first camelback was a 4-6-0 and built in early 1877.  It proved a success since the rule cost savings were about $2,000 a year back then.  More were built in the following years, but today there are only three that remain.  From its entrance into Lancaster it traveled to Strasburg where it will be put into service pulling ancient cars filled with tourists on the Strasburg Railroad.  The locomotive was built in 1903 in the shops of the Burnham-Williams Corp. and is called a "camel back" because the cab is directly built over the boiler with the engineer sitting on the right, and the fireman located to the rear proving that "cab over engine" is not a new concept in vehicles.  The "Old 1189" first went to work for the Reading Railroad until it was sold in 1940 to the E. Brooks Iron Works at Birdsboro, PA.  The locomotive weighed 50 tons, ate coal like a demon from its tender which carries a capacity load of six tons, and develops a 200-pound thrust pressure in its 3,500-gallon boiler.  Officials of the Strasburg Railroad said that some reconditioning work would be done on the engine to bring it up to Interstate Commerce Commission safety standards and that it would probably go into service on the Strasburg line in the spring.  

Preparing to move it from Strasburg's Railroad Museum of
Pennsylvania to it's new home in Sugar Creek, Ohio.

Today's newspaper article said that the Camelback locomotive was transported to Sugar Creek, Ohio in three sections, with the cab trucked out a few days ago and the tender loaded on a separate trailer yesterday.  The Ohio museum bought the locomotive in a sealed-bid auction this past July.  The price was not disclosed, but it is one of three that remain today.  It is named Camelback due to the hump created by having the engineer's cab on top of the boiler.  Jere remembered it well, but told me it wasn't the type of locomotive the Strasburg Railroad used much since it was designed to be a switch locomotive in a freight yard.  While at Strasburg, it was on display at the adjacent Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.  Since it was still in working condition, the Strasburg Railroad though it best to sell it.  I remember seeing it at the museum a few months ago when I went to visit with a former high school student of mine who volunteers at the museum.  I'm sure the Ohio Railroad Museum will be happy to add the unusual locomotive to their collection.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

Another view of a 1903 Camelback locomotive.  I'm not sure if this is the same
engine that was just sold by the Strasburg Railroad, but it is one of three that still exist.