Grand Trunk Western No. 8300 is the first of a batch of five P-5a class coal burning 0-8-0 switchers built in 1923 by Alco at its Schenectady, NY works for the Grand Trunk Western Railroad (#8300-#8304).
It was built as a yard goat for the Grand Trunk Western railroad.
No. 8300 was retired in August 1959 and sold in May the following year with fifteen other GTW 0-8-0s to the Northwestern Steel and Wire scrapyard in Sterling, IL.
The engines were renumbered by dropping the first two digits of their GTW numbers, except for #8300, which became #30 rather than #00.
In November 2000, #30 was sold for display at the Buchanan County Visitor Center in Independence, IA.
Although it never ran on IC lines, liveried as IC #30, it is on display with ex-Illinois Central caboose #199534 outside the Illinois Central Depot building.
Trivia[]
- The NS&W possessed an aging fleet of ex-CBQ 0-6-0 switchers and decided to scrap these and put the 0-8-0s to work in their place.
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