Its return to Bellevue will be a homecoming for the locomotive. The 1944 Lima engine, based in Bellevue, was retired in mid-1958, and along with several other identical engines, was stored in the Nickel Plate Road yard there. It was promised to a city park, but it was never moved. Two years after the Norfolk & Western acquired the Nickel Plate in 1964, the engine was donated to the fledgling Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. Its companion engines were not so fortunate and were scrapped.
The Pennsylvania museum decided more than a year ago to de-access the locomotive, even though it was one of the first artifacts displayed by the museum. While the modern fast-freight locomotive was always a popular exhibit, it was far down on the priority list for restoration, and the Mad River & NKP Railroad Museum of Bellevue offered to give it a good home and a prompt cosmetic restoration.
The Mad River museum immediately began fund-raising to return the engine to Ohio and support its restoration, and paid and volunteer mechanics made several trips to Pennsylvania during the spring, summer, and fall of 2018 to prepare the engine to travel on its own wheels. This included overhauling the air brakes, cleaning and repacking axle bearings, and removing the side rods and polishing and lubricating crankpins and bearings before replacing the rods.
The trip to Ohio is better than 400 miles and will take several days.
