Two years ago my wife and I went on a sort of pilgrimage to find the old Illinois Central steam locomotive that used to sit across from the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge. Our research lead to the remote property of the abandoned Tioga Heritage Park and Museum in Tioga, Louisiana. Sure enough tucked behind the museum's main building was locomotive 333 along with a former Illinois Central caboose. At the time the locomotive and it's companion were in pretty bad shape.
Check Out: The Sad Fate Of Illinois Central 0-6-0 Locomotive 333
Today I decided to venture back up the highway to Tioga to take another look at good old number 333. As you can imagine the state of the locomotive that was once fine example of Louisiana railroad history has become much worse. At least that is what I could deduce from what I could see through the vegetation. As it sits right now the locomotive is slowly being enveloped by weeds and vines. Given enough time this piece of our state's history will look more like a Chia Pet than a steam locomotive.
As I mentioned before the Tioga Heritage Museum is closed permanently and it's obvious that whoever currently owns Locomotive #333 has no desire to maintain it.
This is extremely frustrating for a railroad buff like me to accept. How can something like this happen? Doesn't anyone care?
I'm certain that part of the problem here is that only only a handful of people know that the locomotive even exists. It'd hard to stir up interest in preserving something that no one even knows anything about.
To give the museum some credit they did set up a GoFundMe back in 2019 to try and raise funds to repair storm damage to their main building and keep the doors open. The fundraiser managed to raise an insignificant $50. Yes, you read that right, they raised fifty bucks.
Way to go Tioga. You sure care about your history.
It is my hope that the publicity this article will generate will help generate some interest in preserving this locomotive. Hopefully some local municipality will want to acquire it and put on prominent display at a city hall, historical landmark or museum were people can appreciate it.
My thought would be in Lecompte where the first railroad west of the Mississippi was constructed. The structure that served as that's railroad's depot still stands today. Wouldn't it be great to put #333 on display next to that. It could revitalize the whole town.
The locomotive would honestly draw tourists to any town that took the initiative to restore and display it. Let's just pray that someone takes my bait and the locomotive will be saved.
Here are some photos:
Check Out:
The only thing Tioga cares about is where the local population is going to get it's next bit of meth from. You're expecting far too much from them to care about anything else.
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