My dad and I went to the CSX yard in McKees Rocks, Pa, today. While driving down Munison Avenue, I caught sight of a steamer sitting in a fenced and slightly overgrown lot beside the CSX tracks. Can anyone tell me the history of this engine?
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Been there for years. Used to be under a building. Owned by a private party, Glen Campbell ( no relation).
Its a B&LE 2-10-4 #643.
That's Bessemer & Lake Erie 2-10-4 #643. I don't have first hand details of her past, but the rumor was that she was fired up once in the 80's for a static test but that the owner and financier of the restoration passed away before the project could be completed. She's been sitting around Pittsburgh ever since. I can say with some confidence that there have been numerous offers to the current owner Glen Campbell from un-named museums and operators to purchase her, but that he has so far refused to sell. She was under a partial roof until a couple years ago but is now totally exposed to the elements after that structure became unsound and was razed.
"Glen Campbell"...lsn't that the name of or was the name of some celebrity..singer, or?
The building it was under collapsed or ?
That’s B&LE 2-10-4. Here’s more info on it:
HTH,
Bill
Yes, but this person is certainly not the singer.
The building was torn down in a controlled fashion after the locomotive was towed outside. I can't remember where I saw that series of pictures.
Mr. Campbell has a vastly inflated opinion of what the locomotive is actually worth. He has turned down several legitimate offers to purchase from people with the financial resources to put their money where their mouth is.
His further unwillingness to cooperate with CSX to move the locomotive out of there several years ago has resulted in the locomotive now being land-locked and no longer connected to the rail system. In other words, if it is going to go someplace, it now has to move out of there on a TRUCK! Can you imagine trying to get that huge locomotive out of McKees Rocks with all the tight, narrow streets in that little town and the steep hills around Pittsburgh? That alone will add tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of moving it...assuming it ever moves.
As long as Mr. Campbell continues to think the way he does, that locomotive is doomed to continue to rust under the pigeons. 
About 11 or 12 years ago, back when I was with one of the versions of the tourist railroad in Westmoreland County, Glenn had this idea to get the engine running and then use it in tourist service over the SWP rails owned by the county. The whole idea was unbelievably naive - (personal edit) as assuming the engine could even be made safe to operate it was way way way too big for the service, not to mention it could not handle some of the curves on the line, was too heavy for track conditions, no secure place to park it, etc etc. He also had this grand idea that he would lease it to the RR so he could retain ownership. Never was there any consideration to any financial reality!!
On the plus side in the middle of the blustery discussions I did get to down to McKees Rocks one day with permission and to check it out while it was still basically under cover. What a beast! A pure freight machine for sure it had all the aesthetic charm of a sledge hammer! (IMO)
Still, it would have been quite an experience to lean out the window and put the big girl into action!
In the end Rich nailed it - overly inflated opinion of value by the owner that has doomed the engine to a landlocked, rusty death. Hope springs eternal but common sense does not seem to prevail around this engine.
Ha! That engine would have made it all of six inches onto SWP property before it rolled a rail over...
I remember him coming over to Youngwood and talking about bringing the engine over. I had seen it before that, and wondered what ever made him think that massive machine could run on the SWP.
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