CO&E Fulfilling a Need

Some years ago Kathy Crane, the widow of Crab Orchard & Egyptian Railroad founder Hugh Crane, opened up the archives to us. It is said that the news is the first draft of history, and it is interesting to look back at some of the coverage the railroad received when it was the only steam-powered common carrier in the United States.
This video ran on WSIU television, and was most likely a student project from the Radio-Television college at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
This looks at the CO&E early in its life as a freight-hauler, and appears to have been shot in the winter of 1978-79. The daily power for the railroad was its original locomotive: 2-4-2 #5.
#5 was built in 1946 by H.K. Porter as a saddle-tank locomotive for Central Illinois Public Service, and was purchased from the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in 1972 for use on the CO&E. After the inaugural 1973 season, the saddle tank was removed and the locomotive was converted to a tender engine as seen here. The CO&E would retire #5 in 1979 after Consolidation #17 was restored to operation.
#5 is now in Jackson, Missouri, at the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern. She last ran in 2000, and will never run again without a new boiler.