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Video Submitted by CaseyJones16239. This an incredible story about an unstoppable locomotive.
Update Aug 2014. I am very pleased with interest shown in this video. It is a wonderful railroading story. Even with over 5000 views there have been very few comments. So when I receive any I take them very seriously. A KZbin user called ebtmikado has made several very constructive comments. I give them here in the narrative but do not intend to reissue the video. Here they are:
In the diagram I created of the Wye at Old Saybrook I labeled the high speed New England Corridor to belong to the Providence and Worcester Railroad. He is correct in pointing out that the corridor at that point is owned and operated by Amtrack instead. I have learned since then that the Providence and Worcester has overhead usage rights meaning they can use the tracks to travel end to end from one part of their network to another, but can not service freight customers. from Amtrack tracks.
Ebtmikado also pointed out that I misspelled and mispronounced Worcester. I thank him again for the comments. Can you tell I am not from New England.? I am glad ebtmikado likes Mikados!. Now back to the narrative.
The story starts with the purchase of a brand new Chinese Mikado steam locomotive by Sloan Cornell of the Knox and Kane Railroad in 1990. There were no American builders of steam engines then. For the next 14 years the Mikado ran tall and proud as the queen of the Allegheny National Forest. Her excursions from Marienville ended with a spectacular trip across the Kinzua Bridge near Bradford PA. At one time the highest railroad bridge in the USA.
Two blows spelled the end of the line for the Knox and Kane. The Kinzua Bridge was destroyed by a tornado in 2003. An arson engine house fire in 2008 left the locomotive an unrecognizable twisted hulk. Few thought she could be save but not so the keen eye of J. David Conrad of the Valley Railroad of Essex CT.saw differently.
The Valley RR bought the locomotive at auction in Oct 2008. In just over three years the Valley RR restored the locomotive in what appear to many as miraculous restoration. By November 2011 she was fully restored as seen in the photo above. This video has some thrilling footage of Mikado living her new life at her new home.