Over 100 years old, this is still one of the finest looking locos around. L&N 152 has 69” drivers, 20x28” cylinders, and makes 27,600 lbs. of tractive effort. Photo by Nick McLean
One of the last modern-era L&N steam locomotives in existence and the only one in operation today, the Louisville & Nashville 4-6-2 No. 152 has been taken out of service. The 1905 locomotive was built by Rogers Locomotive Works and owned by the New Haven Kentucky Railway Museum. The Louisville & Nashville No. 152 is due for its federally mandated 15-year inspection.
According to the museum’s executive director, Greg Mathews “There are a number of items that have gotten to the point that they will have to be redone. Some of the items you won’t know until you take it apart and get into it in detail.” Mathews said that in addition to the boiler, there might need to be work done on the trailing and front trucks. “These are all items that wear over time, and until you take everything apart, and strip it down, you just don’t have an exact picture of what is going to be required. You can’t use the old flues; we are way past time on them; they are paper-thin, so that’s a given. In all likelihood the crown sheet is a given, considering the amount of time and the thickness of the metal. Its gotten to the point where it will have to be redone. There are issues with the firebox that will necessitate at least several of those pieces being replaced or reworked. As you get into it, you are going to find these things.”
Mathews says a ballpark estimate of the cost of overhauling No. 152 is between “half a million and three quarters of a million dollars.” The engine was originally restored by a group of volunteers working in an open-air shop over several years. Those volunteers are now much older, and while they would still be involved in the overhaul, Mathews says it’s likely the museum would send some of the work out to contractors or bring a contractor on site.
The engine is to be stripped down this fall for inspection, after which it will be evaluated and a plan put together for the rebuild.
Regardless of what is found, Mathews said the museum plans are to operate the 152 again. “Parking it and putting a sign on it saying that it used to run is not what we want to do” .
More information is available here. To make a donation, call the museum at 800-272-0152 or 502-549-5470.
The new society acquired its first piece of rolling stock when the Louisville & Nashville Railroad donated a 4-6-2 Pacific, #152, which the museum still owns today. In 1954 the society renamed itself the Kentucky Railway Museum and leased a …
Publish Date: 04/24/2009 3:00
http://www.american-rails.com/kentucky-railway-museum.html
The Kentucky Railway Museum, based in New Haven has a history that dates as far back as the late 1940s and has its true beginnings in 1954, in no small part thanks to the efforts of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad! Since that time the museum has grown steadily and today features large collection of rolling stock and even features excursion trains which are pulled by the most famous locomotive on the grounds, ex-L&N 4-6-2 Pacific Type #152 (which was originally donated by the …
Publish Date: 07/13/2010 12:36
http://www.american-rails.com/kentucky-railroad-museums.html
