Southern Railway No. 401 is a H-4 class 2-8-0 "Consolidation" type steam locomotive built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in December 1907 for the Southern Railway (USA) and is currently operating at the Monticello Railway Museum in Monticello, Illinois.
History[]
No. 401 was built as part of the H-4 class of 2-8-0s for branch line freight service on the Southern Railway. By the late 1940s, the H-4s were confined to yard switcher service on the Southern. In 1949, when the Southern Railway was retiring their steam locomotives, No. 401 was sold to the Alabama Asphaltic Limestone Company in Margerum, Alabama were it was primarily used as a switcher engine on their short line railroad, it was officially retired from revenue service in 1964 for a second time and was placed in outdoor storage. In 1967, the newly founded SPUR (Society for the Perpetuation of Unretired Railfans, later the Monticello Railway Museum) and moved to Decatur, Illinois for storage. In 1971, the locomotive was moved to the SPUR museum site in Monticello, where it became one of the museum's static display pieces.
In 1995, a private donor gave the museum money to return the locomotive to operation and work started later that year. After a lengthy rebuild, No. 401 returned to steam on September 10, 2010. Some of the work done to the locomotive included the fabrication and installation of a brand new boiler, a new tender, and new cab, as the originals were badly deteriorated to a point where they could not be reused.
Today, No. 401 operates once a month on the Monticello Railway Museum's excursion trains. It is scheduled to go down for a mandated Federal Railroad Administration rebuild in 2020.
Southern 401- Steam Freight to Monticello