Chicago, Burlington & Quincy No. 4963 is a 2-8-2 Mikado type steam locomotive built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1923. It is one of three surviving pieces from the collection of ill-fated steam preservationist Richard Jensen.
History[]
No. 4963 was built for freight service. By the time the CB&Q took delivery of No. 4963, it already had over 300 Mikado type locomotives on its roster. No. 4963 spent its last years of service on the Bevier & Southern Railroad of Colorado, a subsidiary of the CB&Q. Following retirement in the early 1960s, No. 4963 was sent to the CB&Q's roundhouse in Galesburg, IL to be used as a parts source for sister locomotive No. 4960 which was being used in the CB&Q's steam excursion program.
In 1966, Louis W. Menk was elected president of the CB&Q and discontinued the steam program. Later that year, the locomotive was purchased by Richard Jensen, a Chicago-based steam locomotive preservationist. It was moved to the Chicago & Western Indiana Railroad's 47th Street Roundhouse in Chicago where Jensen stored his equipment including CB&Q 4-8-4 Northern type No. 5632 and Grand Trunk Western 4-6-2 Pacific type No. 5629.
In 1969, the C&WI's ownership changed and the new owners evicted Jensen from the roundhouse with very short notice. Unable to move the 4963 and 5632 in the amount of time given, the C&WI illegally sold both locomotives to a nearby scrapyard and they were moved there in September of that year. No. 5632 was scrapped following a derailment while entering the scrapyard, but No. 4963 remained at the yard for the next two decades.
In 1990, the scrapyard was preparing to scrap No. 4963. The Illinois Railway Museum of Union, IL had just acquired several former Grand Trunk Western 0-8-0 switcher locomotives and ended up trading all but one to the scrapyard in exchange for No. 4963. Today the locomotive is still on static display at the Illinois Railway museum.
Trivia[]
- In 2016, the locomotive's front end was cosmetically restored to its original 1923 appearance. It is the museum's intention to have the locomotive fully cosmetically restored in the next couple of years.
- Engines like this were nearly ubiquitous in mainline freight service in America in the years following World War I.