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For a number of
years, as I have researched the Red River and Gulf RR and the
various Crowell lumber railroads, I have often run across a
comment or a mention in an oral history about Crowell and
Spencer 4-6-0 #300 being transferred to, or sold to the Red
River and Gulf as a backup engine for RR&G 4-6-0 #106. A few
years ago, I obtained a photo of #300 in storage, at Long Leaf
with a tender parked in front of it lettered Red River and Gulf
RR, in faded lettering. Having heard of or heard the stories, I
always concluded that this photo confirmed that at one time, it
had at least been considered to use the #300 on the RR&G. Of
course, this created a conundrum of where did this tender come
from, and the conclusion always had to be that it was from RR&G
#105 and had been somehow not sold with the engine for scrap in
1945. Photos of #105 by Charles Clegg show this engine sans
tender waiting for the scrapper, so this sort of made sense.
What we do know is that the engine was last used in December,
1946, and the photos below show the engine stored at the same
place at Long Leaf in 1948, 1949 and November, 1951. All of
these photos show the engine lettered, "The Crowell and Spencer
Lumber Co. Ltd.". Then there is the Gordon Crowell photo of
October, 1953. There is a simple explanation for this, but it
never occurred to me.
Last weekend, one of our volunteers, Mike Miller, who has been
cleaning the tender and cab of RR&G #106, told me that he
thought that the current tender on the RR&G 106 is the original
tender from the Crowell #300. It seems that during the cleaning
process, he discovered shadows of lettering under the Red River
and Gulf Railroad on the tender currently behind the 106. The
relict lettering and evidence from the oil bunker in the tender,
as well as other information convinced me of the simple solution
that when the 106 was last repaired in the fall and winter of
1951, the tender from the 106 was deemed to be less serviceable
than the tender from the 300, and the two were switched. The 106
was last painted at that time also, and the large numbers on the
cab applied at that time. The photos below now tell the rest of
the story.
-Everett Lueck
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