Great Western 90

Great Western 90 is a class 12-42-F 2-10-0 "Decapod" steam locomotive owned and operated by the Strasburg Rail Road (SRC) outside of Strasburg, Pennsylvania. Built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in June 1924, No. 90 originally pulled sugar beet trains for the Great Western Railway of Colorado. In April 1967, No. 90 was sold to the Strasburg Rail Road, where it presently resides and operates for use in pulling excursion trains.

Revenue service
The No. 90 locomotive was built in June 1924 for the Great Western Railway of Colorado (GW) by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as part of Baldwin's 12-42-F class. No. 90 was designed with 24x28 in cylinders, 56 in diameter driving wheels, and a boiler pressure of 200 psi, and it became the first locomotive on the GW's roster to be superheated. It originally pulled the GW's sugar beet trains of about 40 to 50 cars in length to the company's towering mill in Loveland, Colorado. It was the GW's largest and most powerful road locomotive, and it saw extensive use on trains too large for the company's fleet of 2-8-0s. During World War II, the GW modified all their locomotives, including No. 90, with extended smokeboxes, since they all used lignite coal as a fuel source during that time.

Following the war, the locomotive was used primarily in the Autumn during the harvest season. By the late 1950s, the No. 90 locomotive had been relegated to pull occasional campaign and excursion trains. On September 2, 1963, No. 90 pulled the "Intermountain Limited" excursion, which had arrived in Loveland via the Colorado and Southern (C&S) behind CB&Q 4-8-4 No. 5632, over the GW system, as part of the 1963 National Railway Historical Society (NRHS) Convention. No. 90 returned the excursion to No. 5632 at Longmont, and the latter pulled the train to Denver. Around the same time, the Strasburg Rail Road's (SRC) Chief Mechanical Officer, Huber Leath, met with the GW's superintendent, a man who grew up in the vicinity of the Strasburg Rail Road. A deal was subsequently made in which the Great Western would contact the Strasburg Rail Road as soon as the locomotive was removed from service and available for purchase.

Strasburg Rail Road ownership
The Strasburg Rail Road purchased No. 90 from the GW on April 5, 1967, at a price of $23,000 (equal to $ today), and the locomotive arrived on SRC's property one month later, on May 5. Upon arrival, No. 90 would make its first run for the railroad on May 13.

On February 18, 1968, Ross Rowland's High Iron Company sponsored a mainline excursion train, and Canadian Pacific (CPR) 4-6-2 locomotives Nos. 1238 and 1286 were originally planned to be leased to pull the train, but the locomotives' owner, George M. Hart, had them on an emergency lease to the city of Reading, Pennsylvania to provide steam for a power plant. Unwilling to cancel the excursion, Rowland had leased CPR 4-6-2 No. 1278 from Steamtown, U.S.A. and No. 90 from SRC to power the train. No. 1278 pulled the excursion on the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ), Lehigh Valley (LV), and Penn Central (PC) mainline between Newark, New Jersey and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and No. 90 doubleheaded with No. 1278 for assistance over the CNJ grades between Bethlehem and Jim Thorpe. No. 90 was returned to SRC after the excursion ended.

Sometime during No. 90's career on SRC, crews had the locomotive's extended smokebox removed. In February 2006, No. 90 was repainted in its original GW livery and operated for a photo charter. In October 2020, No. 90 was temporarily backdated to its late 1960s appearance with the original SRC "egg" logo, whitewall wheels, and gold pinstripings for the Steam Strikes Back photo charter, commemorating SRC's 60th anniversary. By early 2024, No. 90 was removed from service to undergo its federally-mandated 1,472-day inspection, and the SRC plans to return the locomotive to service by the fall of that year.

Accidents and incidents

 * On May 6, 1940, a major fire broke out at the GW's roundhouse in Loveland, with three steam locomotives still inside. No. 90 happened to be under steam at the time, and quick-thinking crews used No. 90 to pull all the other locomotives out of the burning building. The roundhouse fire cost the GW nearly $200,000 in damage, and the locomotives, including No. 90, sustained damage, but they were subsequently repaired.
 * On November 7, 1944, No. 90 was broadsided by a truck at a grade crossing east of Loveland and knocked onto its fireman's side, with the truck being damaged beyond repair. Both the fireman and the truck driver were killed in the accident, which was deemed the worst rail disaster in GW's history. The GW sent 90 to the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad's (CB&Q) shops in Denver, where repairs on the locomotive took several months to complete.
 * In 1956, No. 90 was hit by another truck, twisting and damaging the locomotive's side gear. The truck driver was killed, while No. 90's engineer and fireman were severely injured. The locomotive subsequently had to undergo repairs again.