Trains News Wire
News photos: Homecoming for steam locomotive after departing Milwaukee County Zoo (updated)4-4-2 to operate at Riverside & Great Northern Railway, 4-6-2 to follow suit after 2024 season at the Zoo
The 15-inch gauge 4-4-2 No. 1916 Harry J. Grant arrives on April 5, 2024, at its birthplace of the former Sandley Light Railway Equipment Works, now part of the Riverside & Great Northern Railway in Wisconsin Dells. The homecoming for the steam locomotive comes after departing from the Milwaukee County Zoo earlier in the day, concluding a 63-year residency. Jim Schulz
MILWAUKEE, Wis. — After 63 years operating at the Milwaukee County Zoo, steam locomotive No. 1916 Harry J. Grant went back home to the Riverside & Great Northern Railway in Wisconsin Dells. The Sandley Light Railway Equipment Works built the 15-inch gauge 4-4-2 at what is now the R&GN shops in 1960-61.
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The Milwaukee County Zoo recently sold both of its steam locomotives, No. 1916 and 4-6-2 No. 1924, to the society as part of plans for the zoo railway to go to all diesel power [See, “Milwaukee County Zoo railroad replacing steam engines” News Wire, March 14, 2024]. No. 1924, another Sandley-built locomotive in 1978, will return to the Riverside & Great Northern after the end of the Zoo’s operating season in October.
