Chicago, Burlington and Quincy 5632
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy 5632 was an O-5b class 4-8-4 “Northern” built in the CB&Q's shops in August 1940. It was used to pull mainline passenger and freight trains before it eventually became famous for pulling a plethora of excursion trains for the CB&Q’s steam excursion program. By the time the program ended in 1966, No. 5632 was disassembled for an unfinished overhaul, and was subsequently sold to locomotive caretaker Richard Jensen. The locomotive was stored inside a roundhouse waiting for restoration until 1969, when it was illegally moved to a scrapyard. The locomotive derailed on a switch in 1972, resulting in its scrapping and a subsequent lawsuit between the scrapyard and Jensen. History Revenue service Between 1936 and 1940, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q) constructed twenty-six O-5A class 4-8-4 "Northern" locomotives at the railroad's West Burlington, Iowa shops, and construction on No. 5632 was completed in August 1940. The O-5A locomotives were upgrades to the O-5 locomotives built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in the early 1930s. No. 5632 was initially assigned to pull high-profile passenger trains and heavy freight trains throughout the Western portion of the CB&Q system; mostly throughout the states of Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Colorado. At some point in the early 1950s, No. 5632 became one of six O-5A’s to be converted to burn oil, as opposed to coal, and it was reclassified as an O-5B. After the CB&Q dieselized their entire passenger fleet on September 26, 1952, No. 5632 was among several O-5 class locomotives that were reassigned to haul freight extras in the CB&Q's Lincoln-Omaha divisions in Nebraska and Iowa. No. 5632 was one of the last steam locomotives to pull a revenue freight train on the CB&Q west of Lincoln, Nebraska, having pulled a train on September 17, 1955. The locomotive was subsequently put into storage in Lincoln, but in July 1957, all six of the O-5B's, including No. 5632, were removed from storage to pull additional freight trains in the Lincoln-Omaha divisions, in response to some diesel locomotives being transferred, in favor of that month's Nebraska wheat harvest. Excursion service In late October 1958, No. 5632 travelled light from Lincoln to Chicago, Illinois, and on November 2, the locomotive was tasked to pull a railroad-sponsored reenactment fantrip of the "Aristocrat" between Chicago and Galesburg. Over 1,100 passengers were on board that day. In the wake of the success of previous steam-powered fantrips, the CB&Q's president, Harry C. Murphy, (a steam fan who recognized the popularity in steam locomotives) authorized the CB&Q to operate additional steam-powered fantrips within the coming years. No. 5632 subsequently pulled a few additional fantrips for the railroad throughout 1959. Beginning on June 7, 1959, the locomotive pulled a multi-day fantrip sponsored by the Illinois Railroad Club, with the train running from Chicago to Lincoln, and fellow O-5B No. 5626 would then be used to pull the fantrip from Lincoln to Denver, Colorado. Although No. 5626 would suffer an eccentric rod failure enroute back to Lincoln,