Grand Trunk Western 5629

Grand Trunk Western 5629 was a 4-6-2 K-4-a steam locomotive, which was a copy of the United States Railroad Administration's (USRA) Light Pacific design, built by American Locomotive Company (ALCO) in 1924, for the Grand Trunk Western Railroad. It was used to haul commuter passenger trains in Michigan until 1960, when it was purchased by Chicago-based railfan Richard Jensen, who used No. 5629 to pull several excursion trains in the Chicago area throughout the 1960s.

After Jensen ran into some financial trouble in the 1970s, he stored his locomotive at the Rock Island Railroad's freight yard in Blue Island, Illinois. In 1980, Metra Commuter Rail, acquired the Blue Island freight yard, attempted to remove the No. 5629 locomotive intact. But Jensen inconsiderately decided to have Metra scrap his locomotive and filed a lawsuit against them in order to recoup his financial trouble. In July 1987, Metra reluctantly scrapped the locomotive under the court order. Afterwards, Jensen filed a lawsuit against Metra as planned, but eventually lost the case. Jensen's decision to let the No. 5629 locomotive get scrapped was heavily controversial.

Construction and revenue service
No. 5629 was one of five K-4-a class 4-6-2 "Pacific" locomotives (Nos. 5627-5631) built in 1924 by the American Locomotive Company's (ALCO) Schenectady Works for the Grand Trunk Western (GTW). The K-4-a locomotives were copies of the United States Railroad Administration's (USRA) Light Pacific design. The only difference from the USRA design is that the K-4-a class was equipped with a Delta type trailing truck, a Worthington feedwater heater, and Walschaerts valve gear.

The GTW assigned No. 5629 to pull passenger trains in their Chicago Division between Port Huron, Michigan, and Chicago, Illinois. After the railroad received U-3-b class 4-8-4's in 1942, No. 5629 was reassigned to pull freight and commuter trains in the GTW's Detroit Division between Detroit and Muskegon. On September 27, 1959, No. 5629 was tasked to pull an excursion fantrip for the Michigan Railroad Club between Detroit and Bay City, Michigan. After the excursion, No. 5629 was scheduled to be removed from service and sold for scrap alongside the rest of the K-4-a's.

Excursion service
Richard "Dick" Jensen, a member of the Railroad Club of Chicago, was in search of a steam locomotive to buy and use to pull his own excursion trains. He was one of the passengers on the excursion that No. 5629 pulled, and upon learning about the locomotive's planned retirement and scrapping, Jensen decided to buy the K-4-a.

Having saved up money from his job as a bread delivery man, Jensen purchased No. 5629 from the GTW on April 4, 1960, for its scrap value of $9,540.40. It was subsequently moved to a siding rented from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) in Hammond, Indiana, where Jensen worked to restore No. 5629 to operating condition with assistance from some volunteers, including two experienced Illinois Central employees.

Jensen created a routine to work fifty hours a week after his bakery job to repair the K-4-a. He had the parts of No. 5629 replaced to alter its cosmetic appearance, including the bell, the headlight, the front number plate, and the cylinder-head coverings. The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) had to inspect the locomotive for eligibility to legally operate. In October 1961, No. 5629 performed some test runs, and on November 5, it pulled a tour excursion on the Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad (B&OCT), and it was co-sponsored by the Illinois Railroad Club and the Palos Hills Civic Association.

On June 17, 1962, No. 5629 pulled a Father's Day excursion on the B&O mainline between Chicago and Walkerton, Indiana. The K-4-a did not pull any additional excursions on the B&O, since it required new flues, and the midwestern steam excursion market was saturated by the GTW and the Burlington Route, so the locomotive was placed into storage at a B&O roundhouse in Hammond. In 1964, Jensen reached an agreement with Robert McMillian, the president of the Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad (C&WI), to have No. 5629 and other equipment of his be stored inside the C&WI's 47th Street Roundhouse in downtown Chicago.

In 1966, when the Burlington Route announced that it would discontinue its steam program, Jensen envisioned the benefits of having the midwestern excursion market for himself. Planning to use his locomotive for long-distance excursions, Jensen replaced No. 5629's original tender with a larger one that came from a Soo Line 4-8-2 to upgrade its coal capacity to 22 tonnes and its water capacity to 18,000 usgal.

In May 1966, during the sesquicentennial of Indiana's statehood, the Indiana Museum of Transportation of Noblesville leased No. 5629 to pull multiple sesquicentennial excursions on the Norfolk and Western’s (N&W) Ex-Nickel Plate Road mainline between Indianapolis and Noblesville, and over 14,000 passengers rode the trains. During two of the excursions, No. 5629 suffered some mechanical problems, and it had to be repaired in Indianapolis while diesel locomotives pulled the trains. In early July, No. 5629 travelled to Springfield, Illinois for temporary storage on an N&W siding, since businessman Donald Cooper was to lease the locomotive for use in pulling tourist trains between Springfield and Beardstown over Chicago and Illinois Midland (C&IM) trackage, but for unknown reasons, the tourist operations were cancelled.

In late October, No. 5629 pulled two Railroad Club of Chicago excursions on the GTW between Chicago and South Bend, Indiana, and the K-4-a continued to pull excursion trains over the GTW for the next three years. On June 30, 1967, No. 5629 was tasked to replace Burlington Route 4960 in pulling the annual Schlitz Circus World Museum (CWM) train on the Chicago and North Western (C&NW) between Baraboo and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. No. 5629 pulled the Schlitz CWM train again on June 29, 1968, but en route, the locomotive suffered an overheated bearing that required emergency repairs, and it resulted in the train's late arrival and the cancellation of that year’s circus parade.

Also in 1968, Southern Railway (SOU) president W. Graham Claytor Jr. sought to purchase No. 5629 for use in the SOU steam program while cosmetically altered to resemble the Southern Railway Ps-4 class. Claytor sent the SOU Chief Council James A. Bistline to Chicago to negotiate with Jensen, but the latter asked for an unattainable amount of money, and No. 5629 remained under Jensen's ownership. In February 1969, No. 5629 was tasked to pull an excursion between Detroit and Bay City, but the locomotive broke down as it began to depart, and the excursion had to be completed behind diesel locomotives. No. 5629 subsequently pulled an excursion on April 13, between Detroit and Port Huron without incident.

Simultaneously, legal disputes began between Jensen and the new owners of the C&WI, with most of his equipment being removed from the 47th Street Roundhouse and illegally sold to a scrap dealer. No. 5629's original GTW tender was among the equipment involved, and it would eventually be scrapped in the early 1970s. Since the No. 5629 locomotive was stored in Detroit for excursion usage, it was uninvolved with the disputes, but the illegal sale of his equipment resulted in the beginning of Jensen's financial deficit. Railroads around the Chicago area were also diminishing their passenger operations to reduce costs, and they were unable to provide anymore insurance or passenger equipment for Jensen's excursion trains. As a result of the deficit and a lack of company support, Jensen was unable to operate anymore excursions with No. 5629 after 1969.

Second retirement
Jensen later planned to use No. 5629 to pull an excursion on April 25, 1971, over the Penn Central (PC) mainline between Chicago and Logansport, and the K-4-a was moved to PC's Ex-Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) diesel service yard outside the Chicago Union Station. Despite tickets being sold out, the excursion was cancelled at the last minute, as a result of issues over arranging passenger cars for the run, and several ticket-buyers of the excursion did not receive refunds.

In late 1977, Jensen fell down the stairs at a three-story apartment building while helping a friend move a refrigerator to the third floor. The incident left Jensen critically injured, and after being hospitalized, he could no longer afford to pay rent to the places where he was storing his remaining equipment. He subsequently tried to negotiate with several railroads around Chicago to have No. 5629 stored on their property, but they all rejected his requests. As a last resort, he reached an agreement with the financially-struggling Rock Island Railroad (RI), and they allowed the locomotive to be stored inside their deteriorating roundhouse in their Blue Island, Illinois freight yard.

Scrapping and aftermath
In March 1980, RI was liquidated, and ownership of the Blue Island yard was transferred to Metra Commuter Rail, who made plans to construct a new facility on the property. That same year, the roundhouse was scheduled for demolition, and No. 5629 was moved again towards the middle of the freight yard. After Metra acquired the property, Jensen never paid rent to what was owed for storing his No. 5629 locomotive. After redevelopment plans were finalized, Metra requested Jensen to remove No. 5629 from the yard. When Jensen inspected No. 5629 to be moved, he discovered that it was vandalized and landlocked during its time in Blue Island. The discovery made Jensen believe that if he had not done anything to move his locomotive, Metra would scrap it, so that way he could file a lawsuit against them and coup a million dollars.

Upon hearing No. 5629's vandalized condition, Metra offered to help Jensen, but he declined, and he began removing several moving parts off the locomotive, including the axle bearings. By the end of 1986, Metra, agitated with Jensen's negligence, filed a lawsuit against him, in an attempt to have the locomotive removed intact, but the ruling was that if Jensen did not remove No. 5629 from the yard, Metra would be allowed to dismantle it as the only alternative decision. Upon hearing of No. 5629's endangerment, several preservation groups, including the Illinois Railway Museum and the Mid-Continent Railway Museum, offered to purchase the locomotive from Jensen, and Metra supported them, but Jensen declined their offers.

Metra requested permission from the court to seize ownership of No. 5629, so they could sell or donate it to someone who would be able to remove it, but the court declined; Metra only received removal rights to regain use of their property, and they were not allowed to claim ownership of the locomotive. By June 1987, Metra had banned Jensen from entering the yard, worried that No. 5629 would become a safety hazard with Jensen removing multiple parts from it.

On July 1, a judge newly assigned to the case decided that the disputes had continued long enough, and a disappointed Metra received a court order to scrap the locomotive. For reasons unknown, Jensen appealed the order, but it was rejected by court. Metra reluctantly contracted with the Erman-Howell Division of the Luria Brothers Scrap Company to dispose of No. 5629. On July 14, the scrapping process began. Several railfans travelled to Burr Oak yard to witness the scrapping, but some were escorted out of the property by Metra Police officers. On July 17, the scrapping process stopped, and by July 20, No. 5629's remains were removed and trucked out of the yard.

Following the scrapping, Metra discovered that the vandalism on No. 5629 prior to the legal battle had been done by their employees, several of which were dismissed following a subsequent investigation. As planned, Jensen filed a lawsuit against Metra and requested money to compensate for his locomotive, but he lost the case. After the incident, Jensen became despised by the railfan community and later died on March 16, 1991, at the age of 59.