While prowling the grounds of the Boston & Maine’s North Billerica shop complex, I came across this 0-6-0 from the H. E. Fletcher Company. I thought that it was an unusual place for an old industrial switcher to be, but I didn’t really think much more about it. When I scanned this slide, I did a little research to find that this was B&M’s 1911 Alco 410, which was sold in 1950 to the H. E. Fletcher granite quarry in Westford, Massachusetts. After years of disuse, the 0-6-0 was moved to North Billerica for planned restoration and display at the stillborn State Transportation Museum. Twelve years would pass before a cosmetic restoration was undertaken by the B&M Historical Society. In 1993, the switcher was moved to a display location in Lowell, MA, where it remains today. For Kevin Madore’s rendition of how the appears today, see here.
