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Steam engine #18 was a survivor! Engine #18 was built in 1879 by the Danforth & Cooke Locomotive and Machine Co. of Paterson, New Jersey in 1879. At this time, the Green Bay Route was still operating as the Green Bay & Minnesota Railroad, the corporate name of the company that built the original trans-Wisconsin line seven years earlier. The locomotive was named Grand Rapids after one of the major cities on the railroad, a common practice at the time. The business scene of railroads in the late 1800s was volatile, and the Green Bay Route was not immune to the flux. By the time #18 arrived on the property the railroad was in receivership for defaulting on a second mortgage of their property, and in a few short years all of the assets of the railroad were sold to the newly-formed Green Bay, Winona & St. Paul RR The GBW&StP never lived up to it's name, and by 1892 the railroad attempted to reorganize to reduce the burden of their debt. The Panic of '93 added an extra burden and in 1895 a lawsuit filed by an owner of just five of the first-mortgage bonds (Mowry vs. Farmers Loan & Trust Co.) tipped the scales and the line went into bankruptcy again. Throughout it all, #18 stayed in service. The railroad emerged as the modern-day Green Bay & Western in 1896,
with #18 still an vital part of the operations. As the twentieth
century arrived and the GB&W began to show the promise that had been
hoped for, track improvements allowed the railroad to acquire larger
power and the quaint |
September 18, 1938
Photographer unknown.
