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From: MDelvec952 mdelvec952 AT aol DOT com
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2011 22:52:57 -0500
Subject: Re: (erielack) Steam loco used in the NJ cut off construction "found"
"DL_W_0-4-0_in_Andover_12-10-2009_002.jpg" - image/jpeg, 3472x2252 (24bit)





In a message dated 01/24/11 00:52:01 Eastern Standard Time, mikedc3@optonline.net writes:
I don't know exactly where it was sitting but I find it hard to believe it
was recently "found" Someone had to know it was there all these years. I
believe it was on the farm across Roseville Road from the future site of the
new Andover station.
-------------------------

It is remarkable, but it's real and it's there. I, too, thought I knew every foot of The Cut-Off when I first heard about it a bit more than a year ago and started looking at satellite pictures to guess where it was. When visiting the lonesome Baldwin last winter, it's easy to see why it went undiscovered. Its perch was almost a mile from the main line and not along any of the known road beds, its footprint is smaller than that of a billiard-hall pool-table, and its color is earth brown from decades of rust with a patina of rusty metal primer. It was in the backyard of a wealthy farmer about 200 feet from the kitchen window, and from that kitchen window it was all-but invisible. Interviewing around, I found that this engine was a gift from father to very young son in the late 1940s. It was resting on a pair of rails that had nothing to do with the Cut-off, and a caboose-like cabin had been built on the frame of a jenny, also built in the early years of the 20th Century
and on roller bearing trucks. The owner of the land was heavily invested, and during the financial crash of '08 took his life in California. The estate over the years was used by a gun club in which the owner was a member; the farm was left to the gun club in the will. Its caretakers found the locomotive and alerted historians. The argument about secure storage, to me, was a bit funny. What could be more secure than sitting more than a mile from any road in the woods of a busy and affluent gun club? That's where it stayed 'till this month.

Cut-off construction photos show similar-looking Baldwins, but none of those we saw were 2-foot gauge. Yes, there were many contractors and certainly not all of them were photographed. The cut-off construction was heavy work, and this engine isn't that heavy. It was built just about when the Cut-off was nearly finished. The father had found it and purchased it from someone as a toy for his young son, but who? Interesting story. But I'm not betting that it was a Cut-off construction engine. The builder's number traces to a contractor in Andover, NJ, and that it was part of a Baldwin lease fleet. Hyper Humus entered a lot of minds -- anyone have photos of the moss farm in steam days?

It would have moved in 2010, but the ground never got hard enough. This year, no problem. Right now it's in a contractor's yard where it will be fixed up a bit before being presented to Sparta. It was built about the same time as the Titanic, and it's in about as good of shape. There has been a bona-fide offer from a two-foot gauge railroad to reboiler and restore it, but the owners want it kept in New Jersey as Sussex County's only steam locomotive.

There will be more news as it develops. Here are some photos from a December 2009 visit.

....Mike Del Vecchio
--b4acb213-5526-4c1b-8be7-8ca653143394

DL_W_0-4-0_in_Andover_12-10-2009_002.jpg

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