Hi Everyone, The Franklin County Historical Society group on Facebook is trying to figure out what Railroad, and the relative time period, is associated with the Locomotive in the attached pics. The 1st photo is an enlargement of the lettering on the "coal car" of the picture. The second is the entire pic. The original posting stated that the pic was found with other family pics in old album that was "assumed" to be in the Pacific area, but that may not be accurate. The discussion quickly turned towards the lettering on the coal car, which looks like "S L E" possibly standing for Sligo and Eastern Railroad. However, all the records I've found indicated that SLE only had 3 locomotives and all were "shays." The locomotive here doesn't have the distinctive external shafts on the exterior to drive the wheels. I'm also not enough of an expert to tell what kind of locomotive this might actually be, or if SLE might actually have had other power units? The only other acronym I found that might apply would be to interpret the middle initial as an "I" in which case it could be for the St. Louis, Indianapolis and Eastern Railroad. That one only appears to have been operational between 1889 - 1899, and I doubt it would have had activity as far west as into eastern Franklin County. Any & all help/clues would be appreciated. Thanks!
It appears to me that the letters on the tender were drawn on the negative so they would appear white when printed. They might not have any connection to the locomotive. Rich
From 1902 up until the S&E got their 3 Shay's, they did have rod engines. Not sure which kinds the others were but in 1905 the railroad purchased a Davenport 2-6-0 brand new.
Sligo's first three rod locomotives were #1, #2 and #3 . Types of those are unknown. Perhaps the MO Historical Society Library in Rolla has that info in one of 34 boxes of Sligo records? These three rod locomotives years of service are unknown, but likely somewhere 1881+ to 1906 -. Those were operated by the Sligo Furnace Company railway department until the Sligo & Easten was incorporated in 1902. S&E's RR last public service was in 1929. Financial books were closed 1934. Then the SLSF pulled out the branch from Goltra Jct. to Sligo. [The iron furnace had a blow out ~ 1923 and was not rebuilt]. The company had near up to 700 mules in its early years pulling out tree trunks to mobile small saw mills. Sligo company also had iron mines and timber forests in Dent and Crawford Counties (1881 +) and in Iron County (after 1912). Loads from Dent and Crawford Counties locations were sporadically brought into the Sligo village pulled by rod locomotives and mule teams also pulled wagons. After 1906 the Shay locomotives were in on the action. Shays at Sligo, ref.; www.shaylocomotives.com Shay # 1744, S&E # 4, built 9-21-1906, disposition: (3-3-1931) scrapped; All their Shays were Class 3 , three trucks. Shay # 1929, S&E # 6 was near identical. Built: 7-3-1907; disposition (3-3-1930) scrapped. Shay # 2883, S&E # 7, built 10-14-1916. 6-1-1930 the S & E Railroad shut down their operations. 3-26-1931 Sligo #7 was sold to the Glen White Coal & Lumber Co. Gallitzin, PA who then later scrapped it. Piston-rod [Davenport?] (S&E # 5) [Mogul?] locomotive, delivered ~1905. [3/1/2023 photo listed at the State of Missouri Historical Society Library Rolla was labeled as a Sligo camel-back locomotive. ? I hope a frisco.org member living in Missouri will check that out. Researching the Sligo Furnace Company and their Sligo & Eastern Railroad is not easy and often leads to surprises. Here is another: 3/1/2023 documents recovered show that the founders of the Sligo Furnace Company (The Crawford family) were also the highest officers of the St. Louis, Salem and Little Rock Railroad (later named as the Salem Branch of the SLSF Railway Company). There is a photo of a old locomotive displayed at the Dillard Mill State of Missouri Historical Site in Crawford County. I hope a frisco.org member in Missouri will check that out. Will be more fun to find out other surprises.
The only help I can give you is it looks like a 4-4-0 and it’s number is 50. You may want to look up the roster of the other line you mentioned.
