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In 1908 the Israelite House of
David sent agents to New York to purchase a
miniature locomotive, coal car and three
passenger cars (1).
Members had observed these Cagney engines at the
St. Louis Worlds Fair in 1904 while manning a
recruiting booth there. The capability of
these small trains to move people around the
fair on a six and one half mile track was noted
by the colonists. The engine they
purchased was a 4-4-0 American Standard type
locomotive and the passenger cars were little
more than platforms on tiny wheels with board
benches. |
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Click the pictures
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This train was the first of twelve different
locomotives to run on the Eden Springs miniature
railroad over a period of sixty five years. This
is one of the few existing photos of that first
train taken in front of the Archway north entrance
to the valley portion of Eden Springs Park. This
engine was an early straight boiler Class D
locomotive built between 1899 and 1902 by the
Cagney Brothers Locomotive Works. The Cagney
Company built about 1300 miniature engines before
the turn of the century for use in parks,
expositions and other venues. These engines were
based on designs of the New York Central's famous
4-4-0, No. 999 but were adapted to the needs of
carrying heavier relative loads by adding more
weight and larger boilers to scale.
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The
4-6-0 "Ten Wheelers" produced at the
park after the little 4-4-0 engines and were of
a similar design. This detailed picture of
one of these engines includes a group of the boy
engineers used in those days to run the trains.
A second crew member on each train was the
conductor who had overall responsibility for the
train and communicated to the engineer via a
bell placed on the front of the first car.
This bell was connected to the back of the end
car by means of a rope which ran under the
canopy of all the passenger cars in the train.
The conductor used this bell from his base of
operations at the back of the train to signal to
the engineer at the front when to leave the
station.
The conductor's job included
punching tickets which passengers purchased at
the depot and making sure passengers were seated
and bystanders out of the way when the train
departed the station. The conductor was
also responsible for signaling the roundhouse
via an electric bell system when additional
trains needed to be put into service based on
the crowds waiting at the depots.
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House of David engineers had
disassembled the little engine for parts and to
make blueprints from which four additional 4-4-0
engines were made right on the colony grounds
The preparation of a place for the 144,000 elect
at the end of the millennium required that the
colony be self-sufficient. Self-sufficiency
also made good economic sense. The
Israelite House of David's miniature locomotives
were manufactured from scratch right at the
colony. From the casting of the heavy metal
parts to the fine machining of precision parts
colony workmen fashioned a fleet of new engines
starting in the winter of 1908-9.
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Every winter the locomotives and
cars had to be overhauled because of the heavy use
they received during the tourist season.
Each drive and guide wheel on the locomotives as
well as the wheels on the passenger cars had to be
machined on lathes to remove flat spots worn
during the summer rail service. |
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By the Second World War the little
fleet of locomotives was beginning to show its
age. Plans were drawn up using scaled down
blueprints of a more modern 2-6-2 steam
locomotive. The new engines were to be
larger and more powerful than the ones they were
to replace. Since the new locomotives were
designed to carry more passengers only three
locomotives were made to replace the nine little
engines which had hauled the park tourists for
thirty-five years.
Tom Roberts(beard) - Civil Engineer designed &
built the three new locomotives with the help of
Joe Nelson - Designer, Machinist - Made al the
parts and did all the welding
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Just after WWII the
colonists decided that the eight little
locomotives which had carried so many park
visitors were no longer up to the task.
They were old fashioned, under powered and
showing wear. It was decided to replace
these engines with more powerful, modern ones.
These new locomotives would be able to haul more
cars per train. With fewer trains on the
track traffic management problems that had
plagued the smaller more numerous trains would
be alleviated.
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The
older engines were sold . Like the older
engines the new ones were manufactured right at
the colony . These engines were the ones
that most people remember today .
From
1948 until 1971 these engines continued in
regular service during the summer seasons until
the final closing of the park. Many of
these engines were still housed in the round
house at the Israelite House of David .
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On
sunny summer days those who care for these
relics of a time past sometimes push them out of
the roundhouse into the light of day and
remember when their steam whistles could make a
kid's blood run fast
Train Information shared with
us from Israelite
House of David. For very in depth information
on the trains we highly recommend a visit |
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