The Corbin Tourism and Convention Commission has finalized a contract with Wasatch Railroad Contractors of Cheyenne, Wyoming to load former Louisville & Nashville 0-8-0 2132 and tender, plus L&N steel bay window caboose number 30, and truck them from Bainbridge, Georgia to Corbin.
There, the equipment will be placed on a display track adjacent to the former L&N passenger station, which will soon house a museum in the restored main waiting room.
This action comes after many months of planning and funding appropriation by the Corbin group. The Banbridge City Council approved a transfer of title of the equipment in February last year. To the credit of the elected leaders of that Georgia community, they felt the L&N equipment should be repatriated to Kentucky, where the engine, tender and caboose were all built at the L&N’s former South Louisville Shops.
Number 2132, a class C-1, is one of three former L&N steam locomotives still in existence (the other two are L&N 152, and another 0-8-0, Richmond Locomotive Works-built 2152, both at the Kentucky Railway Museum in New Haven).
Of 400 steam locomotives built at South Louisville Shops between 1905 and 1923, it is the only one left. It was sold by the L&N to a Florida power plant at Sneeds in 1951. Over 30 years ago, the mayor of Bainbridge proposed the acquisition of movement of the engine some 25 miles north, for display in that community. The L&N didn’t serve Bainbridge, however.
At Corbin, the engine and caboose will join a CNO&TP (Southern Railway) 10RM-6BR streamlined sleeper, FrenchBroad River, that once regularly operated just 18 air miles west of Corbin on the CNO&TP’s “Rat Hole” main line. The sleeper has already been delivered by CSX, and is on display on the south of the station (the L&N equipment will be on the north side).
The L&N Historical Society has played a key technical support role.
L&NHS president Sid Johnson stated, “We again express our gratitude to The City of Bainbridge and its citizens for keeping L&N 2132 from being scrapped. This is a great moment for the preservation of the L&N Railroad’s legacy as one of the nation’s preeminent pre-merger companies.”
Present tentative plans call for Wasatch crews to load the engine and other equipment in Georgia on Jan. 11 or 12. Arrival in Corbin should be on Jan. 14 or 15, with the equipment unloaded and in place in Corbin by Jan. 16.
The schedule could change based on a number of factors. Wasatch was also engaged to construct the display track at Corbin, which is being done this week. The next phase will be the cosmetic restoration of the engine and other equipment and completion of the museum.
Given the bad news from CSX of the recent closure of the locomotive and car shops at Corbin, and the declining state of the coal business throughout central Appalachia, this comes as some much-need good news for the Kentucky city.
The commission is still soliciting donations of artifacts for the museum. A number of historic L&N items have already been obtained. Project managers for Wasatch are Kentucky native Steve Lee, who retired as manager of UP’s steam program a few years ago, and Jeff Chase.
From Corbin Tourism and Convention Commission