LS&I #21 as seen today.
Lake Superior & Ishpeming RR No. 21 is a class SC-4 2-8-0 "Consolidation" steam locomotive built by Alco in 1910 for the Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railroad.
It spent years working on the Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railroad hauling iron ore between Marquette, MI docks on Lake Superior from which the ore would be shipped to steel mills on the lower lakes.
No. 21 also ran on the Marquette & Huron Mountain Railroad to haul tourist trains.
On November 9, 1969 No. 21 was retired from service and it was put on the dead line at Marquette, Michigan, where it was about to be sent for scrap; but the scrapmen never came. After sitting in the yard for more than four decades, the locomotive was sold to Michael Goodell in June 2003, who plans to bring it to Augusta, WI and restore it.
Today it's at the Mid-West Locomotive & Machine Works where it is now under restoration to working order.
Trivia[]
- It was the last locomotive to leave the abandoned tourist railroad in 2002, after being purchased by Michael Goodell.
- As of 2022, it is disassembled in a slow process of being rebuilt for operational purposes by BMG Railroad Contractors.