Atlantic Coast Line #1504

[Metro Jacksonville]

Atlantic Coast Line #1504



Atlantic Coast Line Steam Locomotive #1504 sits quietly behind the original Jacksonville Union Terminal, now the Prime Osborne Convention Center, in Downtown Jacksonville.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/913

[Charles Hunter]

Fascinating.
Is there a move to spruce it up by getting rid of the rust and painting it?  The black has really faded after all those years in the sun.

[fsujax]

very cool. I remember when this train used to sit at the CSX Building.

[thelakelander]

Its an injustice to leave this locomotive rusting in the middle of a back parking lot.  Perhaps the city should donate it back to CSX or consider moving it to a more prominent downtown location.  I would love to see it sit on the thin strip of land between the CSX Building and the riverwalk.  At least then, visitors could see it.

[fsujax]

I agree Lake, we need to get some local rail enthusiastis on this. I gurantee they could get something done.

[TPC]

Move this to the pocket park across from the library.

[Ocklawaha]

very cool. I remember when this train used to sit at the CSX Building.

Not a train y'all. The rule book sez a train is "any locomotive displaying flags (by day) or illuminated marker lights (by night). Don't see any flags, and at night are the marker lights on or off? These are the "little" lights on each side of the silver front of the engine.

Another SHOCK I had when nit-picking this old gal was it appears the smoke stack is wide open! CSX knows better. ACL knew better. SCL knew better. Family lines knew better. Our little "MIKE" in Colombia always has her stack covered. This is a crime against history. They have allowed a lake to form in the smoke box and perhaps some of her fire tubes with might forever ruin this masterpiece. Let's get up there with something, ANYTHING, and cover her.

OCKLAWAHA

[Jason]

Ock, climb up and put a trash bag over it! 

[Ocklawaha]

That woud work my friend. Usually some sort of metal 5 gallon bucket, painted to match the engine, sometimes cut down to cover but not take much away from the history. HISTORY? Well, sort of, what most folks don't know, is ANY GOOD STEAM LOCOMOTIVE held in reserve, is either inside or has it's stack covered.

OCKLAWAHA

[9a is my backyard]

It never ceases to amaze me how much history is in Jax that I have no clue about.  I think it would go a long way to help the city if it some how connected them (I was thinking a Freedom Trail-esque connection).  Not only would it boost tourism, it might help those who dislike Jax to find a reason to be proud to live here.

[dknighton]

It never ceases to amaze me how much history is in Jax that I have no clue about.

That's a great deal of the problem in our fair city, and we're all guilty of it.

If we don't remember our history, how can we possibly learn from it, and avoid making the same mistakes again? Or for that matter, learn some of what we've done right and repeat our successes..

[Ocklawaha]

In the early days of computers and railroads, the national railroad system voted to install a bar code on every piece of equipment. Every few miles the would run through a trackside scanner that allowed "instant updates" about the car and it's speed - location - direction of travel etc. If a shipper called the railroads "FREIGHT CAR TRACING DEPARTMENT" and wanted an update on his carload, the railroad just entered in the data... "WHERE IS"? Rock Island 49320, within seconds a message would sprout from the machine - Northbound, 4 miles South of Green Cove Springs Florida at 0405AM EST 01-05-75. Of course by 1975 the 1504 sat in the middle of the Seaboard Coast Line Parking lot in downtown Jacksonville...sort of like an oversize garden gnome.

So I was up in the SCL (CSX TODAY) building and a friend tells me, "Bob, you gotta see this..." off we go to car tracing. He enters in the search "WHERE IS?":  ACL 1504. At first the screen went off, then came back and flashed on and off a few times. Then in giant letters it scrolled past us "LOOK OUT THE WINDOW STUPID!"
I never learned who did this little trick or if they still have a modern version of the same. The car bar code system was ended after a federal mandate and many - many millions of $$ that the railroads coulldn't afford (at the time). Seem's no one thought that when grease, mud, cement, grime, dirt, clays, oils or spray paint got on the label, it couldn't be read. DUMB! A 3 year old could have figured that out but not the FRA. Todays version has RFID built in, so you don't need to see the car for it to talk to you.

OCKLAWAHA

[LeoK]

Greetings.
Rather than put the locomotive on a pedestal again, why not consider restoring it to active service for fan trips and the like? Its flues would have to be closely inspected as well as staybolts and other mechanical parts, including the drivers and side rods. I suspected the engine has not been greased in years.
Would CSX allow it to run on its tracks again? Maybe, if certain conditions are met. Which tracks it could run on would need to be determined. Are there any qualified steam locomotive engineers here? Perhaps. In any event, some old-timers could teach younger folks how to do it.

Leo

[Lunican]

Here is a video about the restoration of Santa Fe 3751. http://sbrhs.org/

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/6eVO9DlaEqA" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/6eVO9DlaEqA</a>

[Ocklawaha]

Greetings.

Rather than put the locomotive on a pedestal again, why not consider restoring it to active service for fan trips and the like? Its flues would have to be closely inspected as well as staybolts and other mechanical parts, including the drivers and side rods. I suspected the engine has not been greased in years.
Would CSX allow it to run on its tracks again? Maybe, if certain conditions are met. Which tracks it could run on would need to be determined. Are there any qualified steam locomotive engineers here? Perhaps. In any event, some old-timers could teach younger folks how to do it.

Hello team, been chasing my tail all day. Anyway, to answer this question, the Jacksonville Region of the "International Brotherhood Of Live Steamers" (not a union - but a fellowship) has over 100 car carrying members (including me). We have a Live Steam Club, plus a National Railway Historical Society Chapter, plus Railroad and Locomotive Historical Society, plus National Railroad Passenger Association, plus national HQ for The United Rail Alliance, plus an untold number of retired or soon to retire Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers members, PLUS about a zillion retired navy firemen, boiler tenders, steam turbine and other similar techies. In other words, yeah we have um, even the talent to rebuild the darn thing from the ground up... probably more then any city except maybe Chicago...and with the Navy - we still might win.

The bad news is, once upon a time, someone told me 1504 has a crack in the main frame. Charlie Stringfellow former master mechanic and executive of SCL-CSX lives nearby and is (I'm told) still active with his own steam engine. If anyone on earth knew, Charlie would. If it's cracked, chances are it's toast - except for display. It could be restored, but do we (in Florida or the USA) have a mill or shipyard able to cast such a massive piece of steel?

As for trips the only drawback is that steam locomotives set off every "hot-box" detector on the railroad as they roll past.
So except for rare shows, it's not much fun for the operating department to roll her out. Also they "CSX - FEC - NS" will want full "US-YOU-THEM" insurance that covers millions in damages regardless of fault. However not to totally put out this fire, shortlines like the FIRST COAST RAILROAD from Fernandina Beach-Yulee-Kingsland, and the ST. MARYS RR. from Kingsland to St. Marys, are often very receptive to this kind of thing. As they run much slower, and probably DON'T have any electronic detectors.