I was originally going to post this later this week but there has been such a overwhelmingly positive response to my article about Crowell & Spencer Lumber Company Steam Locomotive #400 that I decided just to move on to another old locomotive on the Southern Forest Heritage Museum, in this case Meridian Lumber Company 2-6-0 Locomotive #202. Like #400, #202 was abandoned by it's original owner after it's last job in 1954. Unlike the #400 however #202 has been moved around a bit.
In 1954 the Crowell Long Leaf Lumber Company opted to store the locomotive near the crossing of the old Meridian main line and Highway 497. In 1980 the locomotive was moved to a location adjacent to where #400 sits today. Over the next fifteen years the locomotive became so overrun with native foliage that it was all but invisible to anyone walking by. When #202 was rediscovered in 1993 the brush was cleared off of it and then it was relocated into the nearby former Red River & Gulf machine shop where it sits today.
It makes one wonder why #400 wasn't moved into the machine shop as well?
Locomotive #202 was the last steam locomotive to operate for the lumber company and is one of only a handful of old steam engines with it's unique 'cabbage' smokestack left in America. Actually the only example of this type of locomotive still in existence here in Louisiana.
Southern Forest Heritage Museum president Mike Miller told this past weekend that after the restoration of fellow Red River & Gulf locomotive #106 is completed his staff of volunteers will turn their attention to #202. Depending on what his team finds when they begin restoration the locomotive could end up as a restored static display or it could be restored to working order.
As a side note Miller revealed that the original tender that belongs to the locomotive is actually on the old tracks south of the museum along with what's left of several lumber cars and a caboose.
Guess who's going to try and find those someday soon?
This revelation came as surprise to me due to the fact that there is a tender being stored along with #202 in the machine shop. Miller explained that the tender is somewhat of a mystery to him and the museum staff. According to his research the tender was altered sometime in its history and is now much shorter in height than a typical tender of that class. Miller speculates that it was converted to a water car, but he isn't sure why.
Here are the photos I took of #202. Please forgive their quality and composition, it was hard to try and photograph the locomotive due to it being surrounded by tools, parts and machinery.
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