Grand Trunk Western no. 4070 is coming back to life! Check out the latest video update to see what's going on in Cleveland, and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel and stay tuned to this thread for future updates. Hope you enjoy!
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I fired the 4070 in the eighties...back when I was young and skinny. 
My friend Dave Hanna took the photo.
Thanks for posting that Nick!
Wow, the list of restored, or in the process of being restored steam locomotives gets longer every year.
At least thats one good thing about these troubled times we're living in.
I remember when my dad took me to chase the Bicentennial T1 on the I.C. when I was just a young kid.
He'd say," Thats all going away, you aren't going to see steam locomotives running like that ever again".
How wrong he was! Thank goodness!
Was this engine stored out in Casad in the late 80's, maybe early 90's? There was a Mikado sitting in there, west of where the FWRRHS is now..
The 4070 was never stored in Fort Wayne. It’s been in Cleveland all these years.
I don’t recall ever seeing a Mike stored in Fort Wayne. A Wabash 0-6-0 yes, but no Mike.
@steam fan posted:Was this engine stored out in Casad in the late 80's, maybe early 90's? There was a Mikado sitting in there, west of where the FWRRHS is now..
That was ex CB&Q 4960 before she went out to the Grand Canyon Railroad for restoration.
Very cool and great to hear. Hope she's on the rails soon.
First I've heard of this.
I watched the video and made a donation. I ask that you do the same.
4960 was my next guess. Thanks!
Always great to see the 4070. I rode behind her on two excursions out of Chicago to Valparaiso, Indiana in 1968 and 1969. I believe it was owned by Lou Keller and was one of Dick Jensen's projects and he ran the excursions. The attached pictures are some of what I shot on March 23, 1969 at Stilwell, Indiana reversing the train on the wye.
Fun times.
Jeff - I also rode those excursions. Believe it was the Fall '68 trip where the 4070 ran out of coal, stayed overnight somewhere in Indiana and the locomotive and train was towed in by available diesel power in the next AM. I took my soon to be little brother in law on the trip and his parents were very worried. My fiancee said to her parents, "Don't worry; just part of the festivities!". She and I rode a GTW trip out of Dearborn St Station pulled by Reading 4-8-4 #2102 previously, which developed mechanical problems at about 26th Street, had to back to the station, and the trip was annulled. She was already an old hand!
Well, I think you might have the event a little off. I will have to look and see if I can figure out which trip it was, but I think it was the March trip. 4070 left with a tender not quite full of water, so I was told. We got out into the middle of no where and were stranded, as the engine was cut off and ran light to I think Valpo... We sat in a field alongside the coaches and waited and waited. Eventually the 4070 returned, but the trip did not go any further. Instead we had to wait for a diesel freight train to come and get us and haul us back to the Dearborn Station. The trip made headlines. My buddy's father called the Chicago police to see where we were, and his Dad called mine to let him know the problems. I do not recall what time of the early AM we got into Dearborn, but then we had to walk to Union Station to get a Milwaukee passenger train back to hometown Milwaukee. I can still remember trying to sleep on the hard benches, as we waited for the first departure to Milwaukee; and there was an arcade game in a corner somewhere, and it had to do with a submarine game, and all you could hear was the constant sonar blip as the game awaited a customer to go up to it and play the game. That was the last excursion I was on with Dick Jensen. He always meant well, but had a lot of problems. By 1970 I took a trip to Colorado and rode the #8444 from Denver to Laramie WY. and back. That was a heck of an excursion, really well run by the U.P.
Jeff - Your recall is sharper then mine. Your timeline is correct, I believe! Poor old Dick Jensen, so many difficulties with his projects. But he had a resounding success with Texas & Pacific 2-10-4 #610 in the mid-70's.
Well I think I am thinking this correctly. I also seem to remember something about being able to get to a town and the passengers wiped a fast food place out of all his chicken. But I don't remember where we were at that point. As for Dick the sorry state of his situation caused the scrapping of GTW 5629 and CB&Q 5632...two real tragedies as far as I am concerned, but he tried his best.
I also have fond memories of helping fire up 5629 on a Sunday in Milwaukee when the engine developed a hot axle on the lead truck while pulling the circus train to Milwaukee.
They had to lay over that day and return to Chicago on this Sunday. We found where the engine was tied up, and met and worked with Dick and J.David Conrad to get the engine hot and return to Chicago, unfortunately I was not able to go back with them, but they had invited me to do so. That would have been momentous.
4070 has had a rather special place in my heart. From its cameo in one of my favorite sports films The Natural, to its career on the Cuyahoga Valley Line, and that it was one of the last steam locomotives to operate regularly scheduled passenger service before dieselization on the Grand Trunk makes it one of a kind. I'm glad to see there's a great deal of progress being made and hasn't been forgotten after all these years.
I agree.
4501: Yes, the GTW used their Mikes on commuter runs, but think the 4070's last days were spent in freight service, particularly on the "mud run", to a quarry north of Pontiac.
4070 pulled a coupe of trips to Conneaut Lake Park here in Pennsylvania on a Bessemer and Lake Erie Branch. It might have spent a summer there.
From the stories I've heard, it was at least one active summer up in Conneaut.
Hello everyone,
Thank you for your interest and stories from the 4070's glory days. If you'd like to see what progress we have made over the past couple of months, check out our latest video update! Hope you enjoy!
I remember as a little kid, living in Posen, IL about 2 blocks away from the GTW where the tracks crossed Western AV, hearing a steam whistle and my dad taking me and my younger brother down to the park by the tracks saying "let's go see that steam train!" As I recall, we missed the train but did hear it.. It might have been the trip that Jeff was on as it was right around that time.
I'll have to take a look later.
https://www.facebook.com/14552...18/2855505088036993/
We're taking questions for a future Q&A video.
@Jeff B. Haertlein posted:...We got out into the middle of no where and were stranded, as the engine was cut off and ran light to I think Valpo...we had to wait for a diesel freight train to come and get us and haul us back to the Dearborn Station. The trip made headlines...
Yes, it made headlines, all right. For all the wrong reasons. It was badly planned, stupid antics like this that almost killed the independent steam excursion industry.
You have no idea how much a fiasco like this screws up the regular freight operations on the railroad.
Hello everyone,
Wondering where the 4070 will run, or how much the restoration will cost, or what type of whistle she will have? Check out our latest video update and your questions will be answered!
Thanks again for your interest and support!
Yeah, I got to watch that video. Never got around to watching the other one you posted because I got real busy. I'll get my eyes on this one tonight for sure(unless I have to work late). Thanks for keeping us updated.
Hello everyone,
What's new on the 4070 this summer? Check out the latest video update and take a look! You'll also get a look into a historic Nickel Plate Road passenger car with a dark past and a bright future.
Wondering what else we've been up to this summer at the Midwest Railway Preservation Society? We recently completed an extensive rebuild of the New York Central Business Car "America", and today she travels the country on lease. Check out this video to see the work that we've done and the benefits she will bring to the Society!
Thank you again for your interest!
I think your productions are getting even better as time goes on.
Hello everyone,
The Grand Trunk Western no. 4070 project hit a major "turning point" last month! Check out the latest update and take a look!
Thanks again for your support!
The Grand Trunk Western no. 4070 project hit a number of major milestones in 2021! Check out the latest video update to see what we've been up to in the past year.
Donate and learn more: midwestrailway.org
It's been an exciting year so far for the Grand Trunk Western no. 4070 project! Check out or latest video update for a closer look into our progress!
Donate and learn more: midwestrailway.org
Nick, you and your video production crew do a nice job on those videos. Very professionally done.
The voice of our favorite Mikado will resound through the rolling hills of southern Ohio in just a few weeks!
Join us at the Hocking Valley Scenic Railway on November 5 and 6 as we mount the 4070's 5-chime whistle aboard their steam locomotive no. 3 for a weekend of steam excursions. These trips mark the first time the whistle has been used on a locomotive since the 4070 herself was last operated in June of 1990 — over 30 years ago!
Your scenic ride will take you over historic Chesapeake & Ohio rails that supplanted the Hocking Canal, which you'll pass remnants of on your journey! No. 3, originally constructed in 1920, was restored to operation in 2015 and remains the only regularly-operating standard gauge steam in Ohio. Her fleet of coaches hails from the Baltimore & Ohio, Rock Island, Canadian Pacific and other roads, including a trio of open-air flatcars!
We hope you'll join us aboard the train on November 5 and 6 to get a taste of what it will be like to ride behind the 4070 one day! The train departs twice a day out of Nelsonville, Ohio, and seating is limited! Make your reservations today at hvsry.org!
For those of you who are fans of the 4070, there is a "new-old" video now available about her days on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad.
"Steamin' in the Valley" was produced by Grant Geist's Berkshire Productions back in 1989, when the 4070 was running regularly on the CVSR. I digitally re-mastered this video from the D9 format master tape in HD. It's available on DVD and Blu-Ray from Yard Goat Images.
The video is very well produced, and runs 60 minutes.
@Rich Melvin do you have any plans to reproduce “train to everywhere”? I know you posted it on YouTube a while back and now I can’t seem to find it anymore.
@Steve_611 posted:@Rich Melvin do you have any plans to reproduce “train to everywhere”? I know you posted it on YouTube a while back and now I can’t seem to find it anymore.
@Steve_611, I took it down off my YouTube channel, along with all the other railroad videos I had there. My purpose in establishing that channel is to preserve family memories, not to be a railfan channel.
The video quality of the 2101 video is so bad in comparison to what's available today that I have not released it on DVD. It was shot on VHS, which was an awful format to start with. Then it's all downhill from there as far as quality is concerned. It was edited from VHS to a 3/4" U-Matic tape, which is not much better than VHS. The camera I used on the first half of the show distorted the color badly (green skies, for example.)
I just don't want it out there any more. It was OK in 1978. Not so today.
I'm bummed that I have other commitments because this sounds like a great excuse to check out the Hocking Valley finally.
It's been a productive fall for the 4070's rebuild! Take a look at the latest video update for a recap on progress. Highlights include:
- A in-depth inspection on the frame crack by contractor Pluta Rail Operations
- Ultrasound thickness testing on the outer wrapper of the firebox
- Measurements and computer modeling underway for new smokebox
- Hocking Valley Scenic Railway no. 3 hosts the 4070's whistle for special trips
Donate and learn more: midwestrailway.org
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