Historic steam engine, caboose on their way to Corbin

Workers load parts of a steam engine and coal tender in Bainbridge, Georgia to be shipped to Corbin this week.

L&N 2132 is on the road home to Corbin.

Almost a year after the Bainbridge, Ga. City Council voted to give the historic steam engine along with its tender and a caboose to the Corbin Tourism Commission, Wasatch Railroad Contractor is scheduled to complete the loading of the three pieces onto trucks today in preparation for the 524-mile road trip to Corbin.

Corbin Tourism Director Maggy Kriebel, who is in Bainbridge, said the trip home is expected to take 16 hours.

With that in mind, Kriebel said the caboose and tender are scheduled to arrive in Corbin Thursday. It will likely be Monday before the steam engine arrives.

“Part of the challenge is that Tennessee has not issued the required permits,” Kriebel said of the delay in moving the locomotive, noting in addition to it being a wide load, the locomotive is a tall load.

Kriebel said the wheels were removed from the tender and caboose prior to loading and will be shipped in a separate load.
With the pieces on the move, Kriebel said work will continue at this end to prepare the site where they will be displayed.
Corbin Public Works employees are putting the last pieces of the brick retaining wall in place. Wasatch Railroad Contractor will be installing the 150 feet of track panel that the tourism commission agreed to purchase from the company earlier this month.

“I’m really excited,” Kriebel said when asked how she was feeling knowing the pieces are finally one their way to Corbin.

“I’m a little bit in shock because it is like, ‘Wow! This is really happening.’”

Wasatch Railroad Contractor submitted the only bid to move the pieces, coming in at $170,000.

At a special called meeting Jan. 4, the commission approved a bid to purchase the track panel from Wasatch Railroad Contractors at a cost of $7,718.

Once 2132 is in Corbin, Kribel emphasized that is not the end, but the beginning, noting the pieces need extensive restoration work.

“She is on the verge of not being savable,” Kriebel said, noting the nearly 100-year-old engine has been sitting in the park in Bainbridge for years with little or no upkeep.

Kriebel said the next step will be developing a restoration plan and recruiting volunteers to provide the labor to execute the plan.

“We could pay a company to do the restoration, but that would be astronomical,” Kriebel said, noting other entities that have paid for plans and oversight of volunteers have spent about $360,000.
However, that route is not the quickest.

“Stearns has been working on restoring their steam engine for eight years,” Kriebel noted, adding that CSX employees along with members of the L&N Historical Society have previously volunteered their time and talents to the project.

Kriebel said the fact that this locomotive once operated in the Corbin yard, makes its preservation essential to the community.
In Feb. 2015, the Bainbridge City Council approved a request from Kriebel to gift the locomotive to Corbin, noting the ties it has to the railroad industry in Corbin.

According to a letter sent to the mayor and members of the Bainbridge City Council on Jan. 11, 2015 from Sidney R. Johnson, president of the L&N Railroad Historical Society, L&N 2132 is one of approximately 400 steam locomotives built by the railroad itself as opposed to outside companies.

The locomotive has a 0-8-0 wheel configuration, meaning it had not front or back wheels, but has eight drive wheels.

“This particular type of locomotive requires no leading or trailing wheels to help with weight distribution and ‘tracking’ while running at speed on the main line, because it did all its work at slow speed in the railroad yard,” Johnson stated. “Instead, the design purposely concentrates all the weight of the locomotive on the eight driving wheels, which maximizes its traction and power to switch long and heavy strings of cars.”

Johnson stated that 2132 spent its career with L&N working in the DeCoursey railroad yard in Northern Kentucky and at the railroad yard in Corbin.

surpluse and on June 27, 1951 was old to Gulf Power Company in Sneeds, Fla.

Upon its permanent retirement, 2132 initially went on display in Dothan, Ala. before it was transported to Bainbridge and put on display there.

“It is one of only three former L&N steam locomotives still in existence, and that lone makes it remarkable to anyone interested in the history of the L&N Railroad,” Johnson stated.

“And, of 400 steam locomotives built by craftsmen at South Louisville Shops between 1905 and 1923, it is the only one to still exist, he stated, noting the ground on which the University of Louisville’s Papa John’s Stadium now stands is the former site of the shops where 2132 was built.