|
|||||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||||
|
Tom King snapped this shot of #11 as it rumbled through on the lead of a freight train in Richmond, Virginia in 1961. Though she had entered the general locomotive pool of the Southern Railway some two years previous, she is still wearing her green tuxedo scheme and illustrious C&N-W lettering. |
||
|
Conductor Bob Gantt remembers that Number 11 was a "real hoss when it came to pulling tonnage, especially on the grades between Hickory and Granite Falls." However, as a road-switcher, "it was pretty poor, because the engineers couldn't ease from a dead stop to an easy push. The operation of the engine wasn't smooth at all and tended to be all herky-jerky." |
||
|
By 1965, the venerable engine was sporting the black, white, and gold tuxedo scheme of the Southern, though she still managed to retain her lettering and true identity. Tom King captures her in this photo prowling around her old stomping grounds in Gastonia.. |
||
|
By 1967, the Eleven was well traveled throughout the Southern Railway system. Here she is seen pulling the "Augusta Special" near Warrenville, SC in April of 1967. John Burn photograph. |
||
|
The engine stayed on the C&N-W or its leased lines until about 1958-59, when the shortline's locomotives entered a general pool with the other Southern Railway engines. By the early 60's, the green paint had been replaced with black, like other SR engines, though she retained her C&N-W lettering, less the herald. For the rest of the 60's, she could be seen at nearly any point on the Southern system, though she seemed to have settled in the Atlanta region by the decade's close. In 1971/72, the engine was painted again, this time wearing Southern lettering with only C&NW sublettering under her cab windows. Her last day of service was on August 26, 1972 in Winston-Salem, NC. On June 11, 1973, she was traded to General Electric as credit for an order of U23b locomotives. Subsequently, GE sold her to the "other" C&NW (the Chicago & Northwestern), who renumbered her as 4651. She met her end when she was retired on August 9, 1983. |
||