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Cincinnati and Eastern 536
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Posted to History of the Peavine Railroad Facebook Group by Chad Fannin, September 12, 2019. Description from post.
If one thing is for certain when researching history is that there will be a chance it might be a mystery and you may never figure it out exactly. That is the very case that happened when I was trying to find the narrow gauge (36”) Cincinnati & Eastern RR’s first locomotives. Different reports from both people and official documentations from that time and later made it hard to pinpoint a few of the early locomotives but here’s what I’ve come up with. One of the oldest photos that exist of the C&E RR is a photo of the locomotive the “Dick Thompson”. The locomotives number seen on the sand dome is #3 but according to its builder records this is actually the 4th engine the C&E purchased. The Dick Thompson was a 4-4-0 wheel arrangement built by Brooks Locomotive Works of Dunkirk, New York having 12x16 pistons and being finished for the C&E on May 2nd 1877. Numbers being assigned to railroad locomotives were kind of a new trend by the year 1877. For the first 40 or more years of railroad locomotive history beginning in the 1820’s the engines were given a name, usually of a predominate citizen or owner of the railroad, a town, a character or a person. The C&E RR did both naming and numbering their Locomotives. Engine #3 the “Dick Thompson” was no exception both a number and a name were given. Nathan Ritchey (Dick) Thompson of Winchester, Ohio was heavily involved in the RR’s business and a very predominate citizen of that community. He was a director of the RR and had raised several thousands of dollars to get it started earning him a locomotive being named after him. He was very influential in getting the RR to run through Winchester. When the first excursion train was ran into Winchester in the early fall of 1877 it was the locomotive Dick Thompson leading the train along with another locomotive called the “Stephen Feike”, both together pulling a large excursion train made up of passenger cars and all the flat platform cars the RR owned. The flat cars were equipped with crude flat board seating and packed full of people and a brass band riding along with the train. Both engines were heavily draped in flowers and beautifully decorated. Mr. Dick Thompson himself was riding on the pilot of his named locomotive and Mr. Stephon Feike the RR’s Vice President was riding on the pilot of his named Locomotive as they came chugging and whistling into town. This was the first train to ever enter Adams county and a great celebration was held.
Attached to this article is a roster of the types and names of the Cincinnati & Eastern’s locomotives owned until 1887, arranged to the best of my knowledge with all the research and resources I was able to find. I believe that the very first locomotive ordered was never assigned a number, it was just called the “Sam Woodward”. Then the next one received got the number 1 and a name. The skipping of a number for the first engine resulted in the fourth engine being numbered #3 the (Dick Thompson). But then according to Brooks builders list there is no #4 being owned. It could have been built by a different company but only 7 locomotives were ever mentioned being owned by the C&E and 7 are listed being built by Brooks. They were all named after officials or directors of the railroad except one, locomotive the White Oak. Why the last one was named after a creek is a mystery but maybe the officials saw the end or a bankruptcy in the future so they named the last engine purchased by the C&E after a creek, since they were up one without a paddle.
If anyone has information to help with this roster please let me know.
David Lamb note: I put the location on this photo as Winchester because of the hand written note on the photo.
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Location:
Winchester, OH
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Date: 1/1/1877
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Source:
Chad Fannin Personal Collection
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Photo or Original Source Credit:
William Bissinger
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Photo ID: 2050
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Photo Link:
Click Here To See Original
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Categories:
Mile 57 - Winchester |
Peavine Documents |
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