Re: Colorado Narrow Gauge in Missouri

Hello All,

This is my first post as a brand new member of this group. My name is Jack Slocum, and I am the one in the Trails End Sedalia group who steered the assembly of this motley crew or railroad history into the display you see today. I will attempt to touch base on as many talking points listed in this thread as I can.

First a little history of Sedalia. Sedalia was founded by General George R. Smith (The Name of our Locomotive) in 1857 as the City of "Sedville" named after his daughter Sarah whom he called Sed ( hence my call sign of Sedvillian). Mr. Smith originally wanted to bring the Pacific Railroad (One of the first railroads chartered west of the Mississippi) to Georgetown, MO. where he lived at the time. However the railroad wanted to stay further south where the grade and land was more flat, so Mr. Smith successfully acquired the land where we are located now and in 1860 he incorporated it and changed the name to Sedalia.

The Pacific Railroad started heading West from St. Louis in 1852, made it to Jefferson City in 1855, then stalled for a while, finally making it to Sedalia in 1861 where due to the Civil War, construction halted till 1865. This was fortunate for Sedalia as we were at that time the furthest point west you could travel by train for those 3 years. A Union garrison was promptly stationed here for the duration, and several skirmishes between Union and Confederate forces kept them busy protecting the rail line. Wild Bill Hickock, at that time a Union Scout, spent time here and it was during this time that Sedalia was established as THE rail head closest to where Longhorn cattle were able to be brought up along the Shawnee Trail from Texas. This also is probably how our other Claim to Fame as the "Sodom and Gomorrah of the plains" got established, the trains brought the working girls to Sedalia, and the Beef back to feed the troops, and also why so many soldiers ended up staying here after the war. After the war ended the Pacific Railroad made it to Kansas City late in 1865, and then further West, as it advanced the Cattle Rail heads moved that way also to easier and shorter trails from Texas.

This is what we built the monument for, to depict what we envisioned a train in Sedalia in 1865 would look like, and to display our humble beginnings as a wide open "Cow Town" and how our history and world events shaped and made the town we are so proud of today.

The Locomotive started out life as a 48 inch Gage 1925 Porter 0-4-0 Tank engine built for the Philladelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company serving it's life on a captive coal mine track in eastern Pennsylvania till the 1960's. From 1968 till 1974 it was on display at the Whippany Railroad Museum in Whippany NJ. Seen below in 1971.




We are not sure what happened to it between 1974 and when Mr. Critelli acquired it in the 80's. He took it to a metal fabricating shop where they removed the water tank, fabricated a new cab and turned it into a 0-4-2 locomotive that he displayed in his back yard along with a caboose. The trails end group purchased it before I joined the group for the display as it was the only locomotive available for sale at a price they could afford. Originally I was disappointed when I saw the pictures of it, as I was wanting a 4-4-0 to be more true to a Pacific Railroad locomotive in 1865. This is what it looked like when it arrived in Sedalia.


For a while I thought maybe I could turn it into an early 0-4-0 switch engine, but after completing the Drovers Car and Livestock car I was afraid with it's 28 inch drivers (smaller than the cabooses 33" wheels) it would look like Thomas the Tank engine setting in front of 2 pretty darn good revenue cars. So I began my campaign to convince them I could turn our tank engine into a respectable Standard gage 4-4-0 with 60 inch drivers, and eventually they agreed. We removed the cab, cow catcher, coal type smoke stack, and running boards, and commissioned Jason Midyette to start building a tender base for us.


We then fabricated the Lamp which lights up electrically at night, the Bell mount, the Wood burning Smoke Stack which emits smoke, modified the sand dome, refinished the bell, acquired and refinished the whistle which whistles, extended the rear frame, fabricated the metal cab base. added the front pilot wheel frame and pilot deck, fabricated the cow catcher, front 24" pilot wheels, 60" Drivers, Brakes, Wood Cab made of Cedar on the inside and Sycamore on the outside. Reattached and modified the running boards. Assembled all these pieces except the wheels, then moved it to the site.



I will continue in the next post...... Jack