(By Greg Rourke) – Long after steam was dead on most railroads, a few soldiered on. No, we don’t mean on tourist trains and such. These were working hard in a very non glamorous task.
Northwestern Steel and Wire was a steel mill in Sterling, Illinois along the banks of the scenic Rock River. There was a time when railroads were selling their old steam dinosaurs for scrap as fast as they could, which explains how 15 steamers arrived at the mill one fine 1960 day. They were ex-Grand Trunk Western 0-8-0 switch engines. Steamers were classified by wheels on the front truck, the drivers, and the rear truck. So we had no front truck, 8 drivers, and no rear truck, suitable for maneuvering tight curves on sidings. They were built in the 1920’s and worked almost to death before becoming obsolete. Northwestern bought them intending to scrap them, but noticed most still had a little life left. They were put to work kicking cars around the sprawling plants maze of rails.
Northwestern was a huge plant, at one time they had the largest furnaces in the world. The old switchers were kept busy 24 hours a day. Some were used for parts to keep the others going. A few were converted from coal to oil burners. The last functioning survivor was finally decommissioned in December of 1980, the end of an era.
So what happens to a bunch of old iron that was decidedly workaday even when new? A few went to the Illinois Railway Museum, where one was cosmetically restored. Five were traded to a scrapper for a classier steamer that had been stored there since 1970. A few are on display in small towns, and at least one is privately owned and rusting on a siding while the owner figures out what to do with it. Why such a crappy video? Believe it or not, before 1980 there were no phones with cameras (one), and (two)Northwestern had no sense of humor about trespassers in a working steel mill.
Some say these were the last steam locomotives in revenue service, other than tourist lines. It appears they are incorrect. But that’s a story for another day.
