Morehead & North Fork No. 12 is a Class A-7 0-6-0 steam locomotive that was built in September 1905 by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO). It was originally built for the Southern Railway as their No. 1643 where it would serve as a switcher shuffling train cars around the yards for the first four decades of its working life. No. 1643 along with its siblings, were all eventually retired and were parked in the scrap line awaiting their fate.
In September 1952, No. 1643 was saved from the scrappers torch and was sold to the Morehead & North Fork Railroad Company (M&NF) where it would become the No. 12 of their fleet. M&NF used the engine to haul local clay products, coal, and lumber to the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O) interchange in Morehead, Kentucky for the M&NF until the railroad purchased a pair of ALCO S-1s to replace their steam locomotives on April 1, 1963.
The M&NF was abandoned in 1973, but a private owner took possession of the railroad and continued operations for his clay plant with four Baldwin diesels acquired in 1976. C&O successor CSX Transportation removed its track into Morehead during 1985, and for a while, the landlocked line operated the occasional steam-powered—and then diesel-powered—tourist trains until 1995. No.12 was shoved into the M&NF’s ramshackle shed and was largely forgotten about.
In 2011, the locomotive was sold to Jerry Jacobson who had it moved to the Age of Steam Roundhouse in Sugarcreek, Ohio in 2012 where work on restoring the old locomotive could begin. On July 16, 2018, the locomotive was finally restored to operational condition.
Today No. 12 still resides at the Age of Steam Roundhouse where it is occasionally used to pull tourist trains.
Trivia[]
- No. 12 is the sole surviving member of the Southern Railway's Class A-7.
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