Looking shiny and new at 102! Looking stunning pristine at 102 years of age, United States Sugar Locomotive #148 steams in front of the company's Clewiston, Florida engine shops after powering a private, round-trip excursion from Clewiston, to Okeelanta, Florida earlier in the day. This beautiful Pacific type was built in 1920 by the American Locomotive Company's Richmond Works, for the Florida East Coast Railroad (FEC). After hauling both passengers and freight on that line for 32 years, she was acquired by US Sugar in 1952, and worked a second career in the sugar cane fields of Central Florida for more than a decade before being retired and sold to private ownership. She ran at several tourist railroads over the next 45 years, before being RE-acquired by US Sugar in 2016 and restored to the beautiful condition that you see in this photo. The company is in the process of developing a new tourist operation, which will utilize their industrial railroad, primarily north of Clewiston, serving towns such as Moore Haven, Palmdale and Lake Placid. Steam fans in Florida will also be glad to hear that US Sugar is currently in the process of restoring a second, larger Pacific steamer, which will be a stable-mate to the engine pictured here.
A continuously growing album of photos that IMHO reveal the awesome and seldom-seen beauty of the railroad world from the dimming of day to dawn's early light! From dusk to dawn, trains roll on! (I'm still finding gems of sunset-to-sunrise surprises!)
