In Rockford Illinois there are 2 coal Tenders sitting with a old crane and some old Milwaukee passenger cars. Does anyone know who owns them or what the story is on them?
the Tenders are # 2612 & #2614
I am intrested to know how they survived and what is going to happen to them.
Later Bill
Do they look like they’re a train? If so it could be part of or a whole MOW train. As to the specifics of the cars I’d try google or the historical society for whatever railroad they belong to.
It would help to know the details on the cars? Can you legally get close enough to read any reporting marks (i.e. abcd 12345) such as letters and numbers on specific cars? [?] As always ENJOY
Sorry I did not have the details for the original message, I was at work and did not have access to the photos.
The Passenger cars I mentioned are more like Baggage cars from the Milwaukee Road, Numbers MILW X430, MILW X437, MILW 417202
The Crane is a 300,000 capacity, Cable hoist crane IDT MILW 8-30-77
the Tenders are Coal Tenders with Automatic Stokers. I could see that the Auger Screws had been torched where they would have gone to the locomotive. The tenders are #2612 & #2614.
I guess that they are from the Milwaukee Road because the other equipment is Milwaukee and I think that the yard used to be a Milwaukee yard (westside if Rockford, IL.just south of Buisness route 20)
None of the equipment has been moved recently. There is a chain link fence around most of the yard and small trees are growing up around the cars & tender.
As I said earlier I am interested to know how the tenders survived, who owns then and what is planed for all the equipment.
I have done 2 days worth of goggle searching and turned up little info.
Thanks for any info.
Later Bill
oops one more photo:
Tender #2614
Later Bill
More Train Photos http://www.pbase.com/trailryder/rail_photos
My bet would be an old MOW train somebody “forgot” about if it were not for the coal tenders, which I can not figure out.
I’d bet they were old Milwaukee Road tenders (I’m not sure how they look compared to the one behind MILW 261). A lot of railroads used their old tenders as water supply cars for MofW trains (C&O had dozens of them in this service); there’s no reason they couldn’t be used (perhaps with a little modification) as fuel oil supply cars, too. Particularly with a wrecking crane in the consist.
The folks down the track at Union probably don’t want 'em. I’d bet that they were just abandoned there.
Abandoned railroad equipment along ROW is a very interesting subject for us to talk about…anybody have pictures or stories on this subject?
My first guess is they are privatly owned. The begining of someone’s museum. Be very suprised if they were just abandoned as the owners of the tracks would sell them for storage fees. I agree with one tender for potable water and one for non-potable or even as a fuel bunker. Since it has the auger for coal the fuel may be in a portable tank simular to construction sites sitting where the coal used to be. You said the yard is fenced but are there tracks still connected to it? The county should have a record of who owns the land and an address to contact them. I am sure they remember who owns them or who owes them money for storage. [2c]
The tenders are not coupled together as they sit right now. They are sitting loco ends together. One tender (2612) is coupled to the crane. there are 9 pieces of equipment total, (4 baggage cars, 2 tenders, 1 boxcar, 1 flat car & 1 crane). I think the tracks are still connected to the main, but in very bad repair. the fence gates are usualy closed up but when I was there on May 30th they were open so I looked around.
Later Bill
The tenders look like IC 4-8-2s. Large numbers on side of tenderss, right?
IC! That makes sense (numbers-wise, anyway). So it might be a private collection of sorts, after all.
If you let them sit too long the trees will pu***hru the ftoors and out either the windows or the roof or both. A museum out in Kansas found out when they lost the use of land that an old dead storage line was on. Had to chain saw them ( the trees) to pull some cars out. I hope these move before that.[2c]
There are several Rail Museums in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota that could use these cars. Somebody has to get them to an authentic museum.
Andrew F.
Do the stoker ends of the Tenders have couplers or at least draft gear so they could be linked together simular to a modern well/ stackcar with a draw bar. They would have had to be used face to face to use a drawbar so that the existing couplers could then be used to attach them to a MOW train. Most tenders( but not all ) only had couplers at the rear. They were married to there respective engines by a drawbar/draft gear arrangement. Since you could see that the stoakers had been torched you also saw how they coupled to each other but may not have noticed at the time. Is this important. Maybe. Without couplers or a draw bar they are just 2 tenders parked with an old MILW MOW train. If they are part of a MOW train( i.e. couplers/drawbars ) then they maybe the last tenders ever used by a former class 1 railroad albet not in revenue service. The rub is that even in MOW service they would have been roostered. Does this matter. Maybe. There is a museum that already has some MILW cars. While I’m not saying they want them I can say KCS moved there existing cars ( for free) from further north than this. KCS’s president is on the board of directors at the museum and sent several cars to the midwest car co. to be restored at his expense.The unique ribbed siding on the baggage car and the “portholes” in the doors appear to be the same as one we have here. He has no tender for his big boy train set. He also wants a steam engine and hey a tender is a start… [2c]
The equipment is owned by an individual near Rockford. Back in 98 or 99 I looked at some of his equipment both at this site and at his home which has several cabooses. The Milwaukee NW2 that is at Monticello was their along with a steam engine that also resides at Monticello. I know Monticello looked at the baggage cars but there was some frame issues with the cars. The tenders are ex IC.
Did he indicate what his plans for this equipment was. If Monticello looked at the cars can we assume they were for sale. From there appearance today it would that if any are to be salvaged/saved that time would be of the essence. That is only if they are not already gone. For what purpose did you look at them? Was it more than just curiosity.
I looked at the equipment as a favor for a friend of mine who has passed away. I know the equipment is owned by a father/son but I can’t remember there names off the top of head. The 2 engines were donated to Monticello and the NW2 was restored to operation in Milwaukee paint. I know he has other equipment that he has leased/loaned or donated to groups one I believe is in Mendota Illinois. The last I knew the baggage cars would not be able to move by rail and the tenders were moved without the brass in the trucks so the axles are probably damaged. I have heard the tenders were suppose to be rebuilt in the 70’s as auxillary water cars but I don’t know if it was for the freedom train or what might have been for the excursion engine that was owned by a guy in chicago and after he defaulted on some payments the engine was scrapped by Metra or the Rock Island but I am not for sure.
Thak you for your time. Sadly it apprears they will sit theretill the trees grow thru them or the frames fold in half. [2c]
All I can say is that it was a failed dream of mine, my fathers and his dad. We felt we could rescue what we could from the scrappers of the -80’s. The yellow crane is number X16 used on the PCE at one time. The rest of the cars I don’t know much about. Monticello IL railroad museum did recieve our NW2 which is now operational, and a 4-6-0 steam that was not Milw. Some other things went to Mendota, IL a Milw branch line car a Non Milw dining car. A Soo line crane (not the yellow one) went to Indiana. However the fate of the tenders which are IC and the baggage cars is undecided. The owner wants the stuff off his property and the City of Rockford removed the rails across Chesnut street long ago, effectively cutting us off from shipping by rail not that most of what is left could be shipped by rail anyway… It is quite sad but we just cannot finanicially tackle any of it any more on a personal basis, long ago we tried for a rail museum in the city of Rockford but the city just didn’t want a part of it. It saddens me deeply that we can not save everything we wanted to. I’m happy for the stuff we did save but cannot get over what we can’t. One of my biggest heart breaks is a sleeping car called “Othello” the body will most likely be scrapped but the trucks went to a museum to restore a similiar Non Milw heavyweight passenger car… I cannot find any information on “Othello” there are 2 other sleeping cars that get all the glory. The trucks had a date of 1911 on them and the car was turned into a MOW car and was gutted. I know this thread is a couple years old but I wanted to shed a little light on the subject. I can’t believe our cars were a subject on the net… I guess you never know what you will find…
Todd