RRDC CHINESE STEAM
ARRIVES
Posted Tuesday, June 13, 2006
One of the more interesting developments lately is the
coming of two Chinese QJ Class 2-10-2 steam locomotives (7081 and 6988) to
Iowa Interstate. Railroad Development
Corporation, IAIS's parent company, purchased these two and options
for three more several months back. The pair have now arrived in the
United States, having
been off-loaded at the Port of Houston onto flatcars. They'll be
moved across the BNSF from Houston to
Rock Island,
IL, where they'll be set on
IAIS rails for FRA inspections and a test run or two. BNSF's online
employee newsletter has an article about the move [here],
and photos have shown up in threads on RailroadForums.com [here]
and Trains.com [here].
POSTED 07-10-06 FROM THE DES MOINES
REGISTER NEWS STORY
Two steam locomotives will be
tested in eastern Iowa by the Iowa Interstate Railroad, a
prospect that is already generating strong interest among railroad
buffs.
"We are getting a tremendous number of calls on these
things," said Dennis Miller, Iowa Interstate's president and chief
operating officer. "A lot of private individuals want to take pictures.
But we don't want to let a lot of people down there and get them hurt in
the yard."
The Chinese-made locomotives have been acquired by
Railroad Development Corp. of Pittsburgh, the parent of Iowa
Interstate. They were transported on a ship from China to the United States, arriving in Houston in June, and were then placed atop special
flatcars and brought to a rail yard in Rock Island, Ill. They will be brought to Iowa City, probably
in early August, for final work needed before they can be fired up for
train use, Miller said.
"We have a little shop there in Iowa City, and we
will test them out, get the water on, and load some coal and probably
start them up," he said.
The steam engines may also be used in
September for passenger train trips planned in conjunction with Riverway
2006, a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the completion of the
first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River, said Sally Heffernan,
a special projects manager for the city of Rock Island. The bridge linked Rock Island and Davenport.
The excursion train
trips will be operated by a Minnesota-based nonprofit group known as "The
Friends of the 261," which has an old Milwaukee Road steam engine
available. But the Chinese-made steam locomotives may be used instead to
pull the trains, Heffernan said. Passenger trips are planned around the
Quad Cities area, and from Rock Island to
Homestead and Muscatine, and to Bureau Junction, Ill.
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Raccoon Valley Model Railroad
Club
5460 Merle Hay Road, Crown
Point Center
Back Entrance, Studio G, Johnston, IA.
50131
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