Draft:Lowville & Beaver River 8

Lowville & Beaver River 8 is a shay locomotive built on May 25, 1918. The Railroad Historical Society of Northern New York is based out of Croghan, NY, on the eastern end of the L&BR. They ran some passenger trips using a mix of passenger cars from the RF&P, NYC and PRR, a gondola converted to an open air car and a couple cabooses of mixed heritage, with the L&BR 44-tonners for power. On 1989 the locomotive was acquired to the Lowville & Beaver River Railroad. On 1991 the locomotive returned to service. Well, one member of the RRHSoNNY, Livingston "Liv" Lansing, wanted to have a steam locomotive to use, and since the only surviving L&BR steam locomotive, 2-8-0 L&BR #1923, was rotting away at Steamtown he purchased a 1918 Lima 2-truck Shay built for the Oklahoma Portland Cement Company and shipped it north to haul excursions, around 1991. In 1994, for Steamtown National Historic Site's big opening weekend, "Lowville & Beaver River #8" was shipped south to Scranton for the big event. These photos show it being loaded and transported. To get it on a flatcar, they cut the rails, lifted them up level with the flatcar and built cribbing under them, then coupled a flatcar between the #1951 and the Shay and shoved it up on with the 44-tonner. The smokestack, headlight, number plate, and whistle were removed, and it was then towed to the interchange by MA&N #806 and hauled south to Scranton for display. In July 1, 1995 the locomotive went to Steamtown National Historic Site for the grand opening along side with CN 3254, CP 2317, R&N 425, BLW 26, MILW 261, and VRR 3025 as NYS&W 142. The #8 was run sparingly between the 1990's and the 2000's and was supposedly a wretched old mule to make its last run on 2001. One MA&N engineer says he got to operate it on one of the trips and said he spent the whole next day walking the right of way looking for parts that rattled off. He said he refused to sign off on any certification paperwork on it after that. It was knocked out of service by the FRA for needing extensive boiler work and when the historical society looked into getting it up to par, they found lots of other issues, like crankshaft cracking and frame issues. As of 2024 It sits outside on display at Croghan, depot unlikely to see another fire anytime soon.