It is not often that we have an opportunity to save a piece of history.
The Dennison Railroad Depot Museum is inviting rail aficionados to help them restore a historic steam engine which was abandoned and vandalized, and has patiently waited 11 years to have a permanent home and be restored back to its glory.
Ownership of the engine has been in question for the past decade. Finally the Fifth District Court of Appeals agreed with Tuscarawas County Common Pleas Court that the engine currently located at the Dennison Railroad Depot Museum can remain at the museum.
Chesapeake & Ohio Engine 2700 has lived quite a life.
It’s story begins during World War II when the C&O turned to the 2-8-4 wheel arrangement to handle the fast freight schedule demanded by the war and built a series of engines they named “Kanawhas” after the Kanawah River which paralleled the C & O main line.
Between 1943 and 1947, the C & O purchased ninety, Class K-4, 2-8-4 “Kanawhas”, twenty from the Lima Locomotive Works and seventy from the American Locomotive Company. These locomotives were numbered 2700 through 2789. All of these locomotives had 69″ diameter drivers, 26″ x 34″ cylinders, a 245 psi boiler pressure, they exerted 69,350 pounds of tractive effort and each weighed about 292,500 pounds.
The very first steam locomotive in the Kanawha series was Dennison’s 2700. Only fourteen K-4 Engines were built by the C & O in 1943, and they were numbered 2700 through 2713.
By mid 1952, the C & O had received enough diesels that it began to retire even the “Kanawhas”, which still had service time, and by 1957 all were retired. All but the thirteen that were donated to various cities were scrapped by May 1961, putting the 2700 into an elite group.
The remaining engines include: 2705 on display at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, MD, the 2707 on display at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, IL , the 2716 owned by the Kentucky Railway Museum in New Haven, KY, the 2727 on display at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, MO, the 2732 on display at the Science Museum of Virginia in Richmond, the 2736 on display at the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, WI., the 2755 on display in Chief Logan State Park, Logan, WV, the 2756 is on display in Huntington Park adjacent to the War Memorial Museum in Newport News, VA, the 2760 on display in Riverside Park in Lynchburg, VA, the 2776 on display in Jesse Eyman Park in Washington Court House, OH and the 2789 restored at the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum in North Judson, IN.
The City of Buffalo, NY received number 2701 and placed it on display near the waterfront where vandals wrecked it and it was scrapped. There are twelve surviving C&O 2-8-4 “Kanawha” type locomotives.
For many years, 2700 was displayed in Coonskin Park in Charleston, WV where it was neglected and vandalized. The area where 2700 was displayed was adjacent to the B&O line that ran from Charleston to Sutton. In the early 1970s, the St. Albans Fire Department restored and moved 2700 to St. Albans, WV. When 2700 was moved, it was pulled along this same line to the mainline of the NYC and up river cross the Kanawha at Deep Water approximately 45 miles east of Charleston. It was then brought back down the C&O mainline to St. Albans.
In 1986, the engine was brought to Ohio by S.T.E.A.M., the Silver Throttle Engine Association Museum in Canton Ohio, who had plans to restore the engine. The engine stood for years on the Esber Beverage siding by Timken. Parts were stripped from the engine in the process and many never returned.
Abandoned and on a spur that was to be disconnected by the Wheeling & Lake Erie, the engine was going to move to either the scrap yards or somewhere else. The Dennison Railroad Depot Museum, with the help of the W & LE and Ohio Central Railroad, moved the engine to Dennison. In May of 2009, the Dennison Depot went to court to win ownership. They won the case and the following appeal.
Today, the 2700 proudly stands at its permanent home located at the Dennison Railroad Museum in Dennison, OH, in front of a passenger train which is actually a wing to the Museum. She is considered to be one of the most stripped engines in the country, completely stripped of all the gauges, valves, name plates, windows, bell, and whistle. Some of her parts are in safe storage and are expected to be recovered soon. Others are lost forever.
It is the Museum’s plan to cosmetically restore the engine, and if funds are ever available in the future, to fully restore her to working order. Anyone with original parts to the engine are encouraged to contact the Museum.
The Museum invites folks to help with the restoration by contributing $27.00 to her restoration campaign. July 27 has been designated “Engine 2700 Day”, where cake will be served to celebrate the engine’s permanent home and the first 100 donors will receive a collector’s print of the Engine.
Donations can be sent to: “Restore Engine 2700”, c/o The Dennison Railroad Depot Museum, P.O. Box 11, 400 Center Street, Dennison, Ohio, 44621. For more information, contact Wendy Zucal at the Museum, toll fre3 877-278-8020, www.dennisondepot.org, director@dennisondepot.org.
Dennison is located halfway between Pittsburgh and Columbus on what was once the famed Panhandle Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad and part of the strategic national defense route. Dennison is known as “Dreamsville USA”, a nickname it received during the forties for its Servicemen’s Canteen that served 1.5 million soldiers, 13% of all armed personnel. The Depot is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is currently nominated as a National Landmark in the Home front Category.
The Museum is open year round Tuesday through Sunday with a restaurant, gift shop and static rolling stock including a rare WWII Hospital Car, Caboose and more. A full calendar of events includes Polar Express in December and the American Soldiers Homecoming Festival every August.
