Tuskegee No. 101 is doubleheading a passenger train with Commonwealth Edison No. 5.
The Tuskegee No. 101 is a "Prairie" type a 2-6-2 steam locomotive built in 1924 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Tuskegee Railroad as #101. She was used on short lines in the American South.
No. 101 hauled mixed trains three times on a day over the line the locomotive was used on the Western Railway of Alabama at Chehaw, AL, to the Tuskegee Normal & Industrial Institute and later the Tuskegee University.
The locomotive was sold to the T. R. Miller Mill Co., in Brewton, AL, in 1953 as a switcher and then to Herbert Hansen in Union, IL, in 1969 and eventually ended up at the Illinois Railway Museum where it is shown loading passengers for her next run on IRM's mainline.
The locomotive served as the museum's mainline locomotive for many years until 1989, when the Illinois Railway Museum decided to retire the locomotive and placed it on static display today.
Trivia[]
- The locomotive worked 30 years for the Tuskegee Railroad and was then sold to the T R Miller Mill Company of Brewton, Alabama in 1954.
- The reason that the locomotive is on static display was because it was being overhauled for conversion to burn coal with its front pilot in storage.
- In 1975, it doubleheaded with Frisco No. 1630 to haul a passenger train on the IRM mainline.
- On October 1971, it tripleheaded with Commonwealth Edison No. 5 and J. Neils Lumber Co. No. 5.
- No. 101 is the only remaining 2-6-2 steam locomotive from the Tuskegee Railroad.
- The locomotive is typical of the light weight Prairie type (2-6-2) used on shortlines in the American South.
- While the engine is in Barn 9 for static display the tender is in storage in the yard.