Ready for the spotlight: New York Central 3001

The steam community is in a happy state of shock this week with the news that New York Central 3001, one of the NYC’s famed 4-8-2 Mohawk engines, might be restored to operating condition by the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society, operators of famed Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765.

The announcement came Oct. 9 at a press conference in Elkhart, Ind., at the National New York Central Museum, in which the museum ceremonially conveyed the 3001 and some other assets to the FWRHS. It also marked the beginning of an initial fund-raising campaign that includes a $100,000 kickoff challenge grant with a goal of raising $500,000 by May 3, 2025. The proceeds will be used to prepare and move the 4-8-2, presumably to the Society’s facility at New Haven, outside Fort Wayne.

As plans stand, the restored 3001 would run on the Indiana Northeastern Railroad, which already hosts NKP 765 on the Fort Wayne group’s “Indiana Rail Experience” excursions. The route includes 46 miles of ex-NYC (formerly Lake Shore & Michigan Southern) between Steubenville, Ind., and Coldwater, Mich., track that saw Mohawks in service. To top it off, FWRHS is currently restoring a number of former NYC passenger cars.

Ultimately, says FWRH’s Kelly Lynch, the full restoration of No. 3001 will cost something in the neighborhood of $4.3 million. Plans for rehabilitation received a boost after an inspection of the engine by consulting firm FMW Solutions and negotiations with the city of Elkhart, which owns the museum. These initial efforts were funded in part by retired Norfolk Southern and Amtrak CEO Wick Moorman.

The inspection team found no insurmountable obstacles to getting the 3001 back in shape, although at the press conference Lynch acknowledged that the 4-8-2 is “worn out” and will need a lot of work, much of it yet to be revealed as the engine gives up its secrets in the shop. Lynch said the organization hopes the 3001 will move to its new restoration location by the end of 2025.

A not so incidental fact: the 3001 is a sister engine to the most famous Mohawk of all, NYC No. 3005, the main character in the drama known as “The Mohawk that Refused to Abdicate,” the David P. Morgan/Philip R. Hastings safari that appeared in book form in 1975. Both the 3001 and 3005 were part of the same order of L-3a engines that began arriving from Alco in late 1940. Alas, despite its heroics in Morgan’s story, the 3005 appears to have been retired between March and June 1956 and promptly scrapped.

But not the 3001. The fact that it was saved — almost alone among larger NYC power — is a minor miracle, one that occurred in what can only be described as freak circumstances. Retired and ready for scrap in 1957, the Central ended up selling the engine to an embarrassed Texas & Pacific Railroad to replace a T&P 2-10-4 that had suffered significant vandalism on display at the state fairgrounds in Dallas. Posing as “T&P 909,” the 3001 took up residence at the fair, and was later moved to the nearby Museum of the American Railroad in Frisco, Texas. In 1984 it came to Elkhart in an equipment swap.

There it was, back at home, on the museum grounds adjacent to the former NYC main line. And now there are plans for a new lease on life, earning the 3001 all kinds of social-media variations on the phrase “refuses to abdicate.” Does this merit all the fuss?

Of course! Of all the major mid-century railroads retiring steam, none engendered as much lament and condemnation as the Central, for the simple fact that it got rid of almost every steam engine it ever had. The company’s most infamous decision — laid directly at the feet of NYC President Al Perlman — was to scrap all its fabled J-class Hudson passenger engines, among the most beloved locomotives of all time. Ditto NYC’s amazing 4-8-4 Niagara type.

But somehow a couple of 4-8-2 Mohawks slipped through Perlman’s grip. The other survivor is No. 2933, a utilitarian L-2d engine built way back in 1929 and donated by NYC in 1962 to the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis. With its cluttered boiler and footboard pilot, the 2933 is more emblematic of the drag-freight era than the rarified high-horsepower milieu of the 3001. Both are worthy representatives of NYC steam; Central ultimately had 600 4-8-2s on the roster, more of the wheel arrangement than any other railroad.

Of the two, only the 3001 deserves the moniker “thoroughbred,” maybe even as much as the more famous Hudsons. The L-3a engines were elite dual-service stars that handled passenger trains or time freights with equal aplomb. And as freight engines, the Mohawks almost certainly delivered more dollar value to NYC’s stockholders than their more glamorous cousins.

In his definitive book on the subject, “Know Thy Late Mohawks,” published in 2022 by the NYC System Historical Society, author Tom Gerbracht made some bold claims: “The late Mohawks, with changes and improvements, would prove to be the most versatile and longest-lasting modern road locomotives on the Central’s roster. They were most likely the best dual-service two-cylinder steam locomotives of the modern age.”

Maybe the best case for the 3001 comes from Morgan himself, who, as the young editor of Trains magazine encountering the 3005 in 1955, had this to say: “An L-3a looks like a passenger engine. After all, from the drop-coupler pilot back to the third pair of disc drivers she smacks of Hudson design in a blueprint that resists straight lines and luxuriates in smooth contours and subtle, feminine curves. She is grace and speed, an aristocrat of multiple-track main lines.”

Great point, David. Maybe we don’t need a Hudson. Maybe the unlikely survival of 3001 is the best answer to Al Perlman’s perfidy. With a little luck and perseverance, Mohawk No. 3001 will be the NYC engine we’ve all been longing for.

For information on contributing to the restoration of New York Central 3001 visit www.americanloco.org.