Nice image of a loco that's been hidden away for several years. This engine is most often referred to as Dardanelle & Russellville #8, because that's where she spent most of her "working" years. She was built in 1888 by the Cooke Locomotive & Machine Co, in Patterson, NJ. After "retirement", she did some movie work and she was indeed leased to the new V&T in 1976 for just one year. The Gray family even gave her the #28, to continue the V&T numbering system. Wish she could have stayed, but tractive effort would have been a problem with the heavy coaches they run today. She ran on the Sierra for a while in the 70s, before landing at NSRM in the 1980s. For a while, she was the primary excursion engine at the museum, but some sort of firebox problem put her out of service a few years back, and she's been in the barn ever since. Recently, she loaned her tender to V&T#25, while that engine's tender was restored. Nice to see her back together. Would love to see her run again.
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