@Rusty Traque posted:Well, it's a Harriman 2-8-0 lettered for BC&G, but it's not a model of BC&G #4. Hardly the last operating and we'll discount locomotive in tourist or museum service.
The Nortwestern Steel and Wire 0-8-0's were working until 1981. Shot this picture in 1973:
Rusty
Agreed, i.e. the "last operating steam locomotive in North America". Those folks at that North Carolina Museum don't know what they are talking about. I was on the BC&G RR many, MANY times from the fall of 1962 thru the winter of 1965 (while on leave from the U.S.Army), and #4 was NOT the last steam locomotive to operate on the BC&G. The BC&G had three operating 2-8-0 locomotives (#4, #13, and #14), generally changing one out every month. Locomotive #13 was generally the strongest and was thus used in the worst winter weather months. Both #13 and #14 were superheated, while #4 was saturated and thus couldn't haul as many empty cars ( usually 50 to 60 hoppers) up the grade to the mine in Widen.
That Lionel model is NOT anything like #4, except for being a 2-8-0.