B&LE 643 moves for the first time in decades

At the end of January 2023, several years' worth of work to get the B&LE 643 moved from McKees Rocks, PA, to the Age of Steam Roundhouse Museum in Sugarcreek, OH, were finally completed.

B&LE 2-10-4 643 is a "Texas" type locomotive built by Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Bessemer & Lake Erie in 1944, one of 47 built for the B&LE. Due to the quick rise of diesel power, the 643 only saw regular freight use until 1952, and the locomotive was stored in the railroad's roundhouse in Greenville, PA. Though I'm not certain of the exact history between then and now, the 643 changed hands and moved several times, ending up exposed to the elements in an open lot in McKees Rocks, PA, for several decades. Age of Steam acquired the 643 from The Steel City Railway Historical Society in 2018 and began the process to bring it back to shelter in Jerry Jacobson's Roundhouse at AOS.

The 643's tender was moved to the roundhouse by truck in 2019, but the bulk of the locomotive had to be cut in half and loaded onto two heavy duty flat cars. Once loaded, 643 was handed off from CSX to P&OC, then to NS, then to OHCR. One of the flatcars had an issue while on NS and was quickly repaired at Conway yard, but otherwise, the move went without a hitch.

I was able to intercept the move of the 643 at Miller Station, Ohio, on January 30th, 2024. The Ohio Central MILL job took the 643 and a cut of trash container cars west from Miller Station (near Hopedale) to Dennison, leaving their train in the Rosebud siding and grabbing empty trash containers to take east. Not long after, the OHCR CNL1 job came to Dennison to take the 643 west to Coshocton on its own special move. The crew did not have time to go to Sugarcreek that evening, but took it up to the roundhouse the following day. Thank you to Doyle Yoder and the Age of Steam Roundhouse Museum for allowing me to use their footage of the 643 arriving at the roundhouse!