Future of 2-4-0 displayed in Georgia in limbo

McDONOUGH, Ga. – The future of a 1934 H.K. Porter 2-4-0 steam locomotive on display at a local park 30 miles south of Atlanta is up in the air, according to its owners, the elected Board of Commissioners of Georgia’s Henry County.

Wearing No. 7, the engine, acquired in 2003, has been displayed at the county’s Heritage Park. In recent months, the park staff recommended declaring surplus several items, including the engine, because of the difficulty of upkeep and liability concerns. If the county deaccessions the engine, it could be sold, donated, or scrapped.

The commissioners discussed the proposal but reached no consensus, tabling the idea at their Nov. 16 meeting. County spokeswoman Stephanie Braun told Trains News Wire that the issue generated many phone calls and emails in favor of retaining the engine.

Built at Porter’s plant in Pittsburgh, the engine began life as an 0-4-0T for American Viscose Co.’s Marcus Hook, Pa., plant. It later was sold to West Penn Power and numbered 2 for use at the utility’s Connellsville, Pa.-area plant.

Railfan and factory worker Hal Harkness of West Virginia found the engine rusting away in Gas City, Ind., bought it and restored it for tourist passenger use on the Buckeye Central Railroad in Ohio, starting in 1992. He added a pony truck and a pilot to make it more nearly resemble a road passenger locomotive. At some point, it acquired a tender, and the number was changed to 7.

Harkness moved the engine east to inaugurate service on the Laurel Highlands Railroad, a tourist line operating over former Pennsylvania Railroad and Baltimore & Ohio branches in southwestern Pennsylvania. An economic development authority affiliated with Westmoreland County had bought the 39 miles of trackage to prevent scrapping and preserve freight service.

Laurel Highlands operated from 1996 to the end of 2000, when the county declined to renew Harkness’s lease. He had previously placed the engine up for sale, and Henry County acquired it in 2003.

The Georgia county wanted a locomotive to represent a tragic June 23, 1900, train wreck on the Southern Railway at McDonough, where a Macon, Ga.-to-Atlanta train crashed through a washed-out trestle at Camp Creek. Killed in the crash and ensuing fire were 35 of the 45 people on board, including five crew members. All 10 survivors were in a Pullman sleeper at the rear. The accident stood for decades as the worst train wreck in Georgia history, until surpassed by a 1944 Atlantic Coast Line wreck in which 44 people died.

Apparently, the fact that the Porter’s engine number was 7 figured into the county’s decision to acquire it, because an interpretive signboard at the park claims that “the locomotive’s number is the same as the Camp Creek engine: the Old No. 7.” However, there is some confusion on this point, because the Southern operated a regularly scheduled passenger train No. 7 between those points at about that time, and the wrecked train was identified as such in Atlanta Constitution newspaper coverage. No other connection between the site and the Porter exists.