Draft:Mississippi Eastern 303

Mississippi Eastern 303 (also known as York Southern No. 1) is a 4-6-0 "Ten-Wheeler" type steam locomotive built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1916.

History
No. 303 was constructed in 1916 for the Mississippi Eastern Railroad, a short-line based out of Quitman, Missouri, and it was used to pull logging trains from local forests. By 1933, most of the forests railroad served had been cleared, and the Mississippi Eastern ceased operations.

In 1934, No. 303 was sold to a railroad equipment dealer, who, in turn, sold it to the Lancaster and Chester Railroad (LC) in Lancaster, South Carolina. The LC renumbered the locomotive to No. 32, and they later sold it to the Hampton and Branchville Railroad (H&B) in 1946.

No. 32 was retired from the H&B in 1958, and it was sold to Byron Andrews of York, Pennsylvania in 1963. Andrews moved the locomotive to York and repainted it as York Southern No. 1, and he planned to operate it in excursion service on his York Southern Railroad. After operating only two diesel-powered excursions, the York Southern closed down, and Andrews fell behind on rent to his equipment. No. 1 was subsequently sold at a sheriff auction to a nearby scrap dealer.

In 1970, steam locomotive preservationist Richard "Dick" Jensen purchased No. 1 for its scrap value of $1,563, and moved it on its own wheels to Chicago, Illinois. The locomotive was stored on a rented siding along the Chicago, West Pullman and Southern Railroad (CWPS) in the southern suburbs along with two tenders from scrapped Illinois Central (IC) 2600 series locomotives Nos. 2612 and 2613. Jensen planned to restore No. 1 to operating condition and use it to pull his own excursion trains, but during the late 1970s, he was running into financial trouble, and he began falling behind on rent to store his equipment on the CWPS.

In 1981, the CWPS gave up on collecting rent from Jensen, and they seized ownership of No. 1 and the tenders as compensation. They subsequently sold them at an auction to William Latham of Rockford, Illinois. Latham planned to open a railroad museum with the locomotive and tenders, but for unknown reasons, the plans fell through. In June 2000, No. 1 was acquired by the Monticello Railway Museum (MRM), and it was moved via truck to their property in Monticello, Illinois. Upon arrival, the locomotive was put on outdoor display, waiting for a cosmetic restoration.