Strasburg Rail Road (Great Western) No. 90 is a Class 12-42-F 2-10-0 "Decapod" type steam locomotive owned and operated by the Strasburg Rail Road outside of Strasburg, Pennsylvania. Built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1924, No. 90 originally pulled sugar beet trains for the Great Western Railway of Colorado. In 1967, No. 90 was sold to the Strasburg Rail Road where it now resides and operates today for use on excursion trains. As of today, No. 90 is one of only two operational Decapod type steam locomotives in America, the other being Frisco No. 1630 at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois.
Strasburg Railroad - Notable -90 Returns!
History[]
The locomotive was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in June 1924, in Philadelphia. it originally pulled sugar beet trains of about 40 to 50 cars length for the Great Western Railway of Colorado to the company's towering mill in Loveland, Colorado. It was the Great Western's largest and most powerful road locomotive and saw extensive use on trains too large for the company's fleet of 2-8-0s. On November 7, 1944, the engine was hit by a truck at a grade crossing east of Loveland and knocked onto its fireman's side, killing both the fireman and the truck driver. The Great Western sent 90 to the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad's shops in Denver for repairs. Following WWII, the locomotive was used primarily in the Autumn during the harvest season.
By the late 1950s, the engine was occasionally used in excursion service on the Great Western. In 1963, No. 90 pulled a few special excursions for that year's National Railway Historical Society Convention, where it was held in Denver at the time. On one such excursion, Strasburg Rail Road's Chief Mechanical Officer, Huber Leath, met the Great Western's superintendent, a man who grew up in the vicinity of the Strasburg Rail Road and struck a deal in which the Great Western would contact the Strasburg Rail Road as soon as the engine was available for purchase. The Strasburg Rail Road purchased No. 90 on April 5, 1967, for a price of $23,000.00(~$175,000 in 2019) and the locomotive arrived on Strasburg's property a month later on May 5, 1967. Despite the locomotive's good condition after its successful test run on May 13, 1967, SRC had to give No. 90 a complete overhaul for a mandated set of flues, which lasted over a year, work was completed by February 1968.
That same month, Ross Rowland's High Iron Company planned to operate a series of mainline steam excursions between Jersey City, New Jersey and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania on the Central Railroad of New Jersey. Rowland had originally planned to lease two ex Canadian Pacific G5-class 4-6-2s, numbers 1238 and 1286, both owned by George M. Hart. However, those two locomotives were on emergency leases to the city of Reading, Pennsylvania to provide steam for the city after the boiler at the Reading Steam Heat and Power Co. became disabled. Since tickets for the excursion had already been sold, and Rowland was unwilling to pull the trip with a diesel, he leased Steamtown's ex Canadian Pacific 127 (formerly 1278), a sister to the two locomotives he intended to use to pull the train. However, the 127 did not have enough power to pull the train over the grades on the CNJ near Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania on her own and Rowland leased the 90 to act as a helper engine for the trips, double-heading with the 127 between Bethlehem and Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. After the trips concluded, No. 90 was returned to Strasburg.
As it was on the Great Western, the engine is also the most powerful of the four steam locomotives in operation at the Strasburg Rail Road in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, rated for 1,211 tons on the line. It is currently one of the only two 2-10-0 Decapods operating in the United States, the other one is former Frisco No. 1630, which operates at the Illinois Railway Museum.
In 1995, the engine appeared in an episode of the PBS series: American Experience on the Orphan Trains.
No. 90 has had numerous modifications during its time at Strasburg, the most recent being in 2013, in which it was repainted in a new paint scheme similar to what it originally wore back in the 1990s. Differences include the yellow pin striping and lettering, which is currently painted / stenciled in white. Its smokebox was painted silver, and its number plate was black. In 2015, No. 90 went through another modification, where its smokebox color changed from silver to brown. After this modification, 90 was to return to service in February 2016. As of January 2023, No. 90 is still operational, but in early 2024, it is currently undergoing its Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) federally mandated 1,472-day boiler inspection and overhaul.