The largest steam locomotive in Massachusetts is the B&M 410, a G-11-a class switcher, built in 1911 by the Manchester Locomotive Works. She worked the B&M system for several decades before being retired around 1950. She passed though a couple of private owners before being donated to the Lowell National Historical Park in Lowell, Massachusetts in the early 1980s. By then, she was a derelict and would need a ton of TLC just to be presentable as a static display. Fortunately, her cause was taken up by the dedicated volunteers of the B&M Historical Society. Bit by bit, over many years, these caring souls have indeed brought back the pride this old gal once had.
It is entirely fitting that she now dominates the trolley platform at the National Park's Visitor Center. She's a fine example of the class of short wheel-base engines that were once a common sight in this city, running on the same rails on which she now sits, delivering carloads of goods to the mills and factories. She is displayed with a restored wooden combine that contains a small museum of the history of the B&M in Lowell. That museum is opened to the public occasionally, during major public events, such as the Lowell Folk Festival in July.
Not
just heritage schemes, not just commemorative schemes - this album is devoted to some of the world's most interesting paint schemes, past or present.
Photographs where trains and people mix, weather it's street running, plant switching or carrying a unit grain train out of an elevator, it will be put here.
