Number 5: H.K. Porter's Last 2-4-2 Locomotive

This is the story of locomotive Number Five, a 2-4-2 built by H.K. Porter in 1946. She was the last of her type, built as a tank engine for the Central Illinois Public Service plant at Meredosia, Illinois. She was preserved at the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in Wisconsin, and then was sold to an Illinois tourist line. It was while on the Crab Orchard & Egyptian Railroad that she was converted to a conventional tender locomotive. She pulled excursion trains in Illinois, and returned to freight service when the CO&E became the last steam-powered common-carrier in the U.S. After again being retired, she was sold to the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern in Jackson, Missouri, where she operated from 1986 to 1999. This program covers the story of this historic and unique locomotive from her days as a saddle-tank locomotive through her last year of operation. We previously presented the history of the locomotive that replaced Number Five, and it was well past time to tell her story as well.