sunken steam locomotive

Ken from Atlanta · Feb 22, 2008

It's possible, the railroads left a lot of equipment right where it fell in those days, I know of at least 3 abandoned locomotives out here in the woods, and a rumor of another one at the bottom of a local lake. The best advice I can give is to check local newspaper archives, there should be some mention of it, as train wrecks were big news especially in rural areas. If you know the location of the grade, try probing the ground nearby, a locomotive isn't going to go very far from where it left the tracks.

Here's a good site that shows some of the wrecks out here in my area. http://www.brian894x4.com/RingofFire.html

thepoolguy · Feb 22, 2008

well sounds like alot of newspapers to go through...i think i may start with a historian of the rr i found online..just hope they dont try to claim it. do you guys think they have any rights to it? also what would the state of preservation be? im told the lack of oxygen may have preserved it quite well. thanks for the cool site ken, lots of very cool pics! well hopefully i can narrow down at least the year from the rr historians ....would make for alot less newspapers to go through. thanks again dave

jeff of pa · Feb 22, 2008

Actually it is Hard to Get any Railroad to Give up their
rights So They would probably Claim it.

The Only hope is that You Could get the Local Historical Society if there is one,
Or the City to Convince them to restore it and Put it on Display.

Sorry, I'd be Extremely Surprised if you could claim
anything except the Recognition of Finding it.

Ken from Atlanta · Feb 22, 2008

Claiming it would depend on one main issue: is it located on land still owned by the railroad? If it's your private land, then you should have rights to whatever was discarded and buried on it no matter how large or small. Is the right of way abandoned? Is that railroad company still in business? Odds are even if they are they won't want anything to do with it. So long as you don't dig a giant pit on railroad property, or undermine the tracks if they are still in use, I think you'd have no real problem.

Your biggest issue would be funds to dig it out, it will be an expensive project, and you'd need to hire a crane to lift it, and qualified riggers to make sure it came out safely. It should be well preserved, as pete bogs preserve anything that is thrown into them, but it would deteriorate rapidly once it came out, you'd need a building big enough to house it, to properly preserve it, clean it and stabilize the metal.

That being said, if it is there and you find it, I'd be more than happy to do the rigging work for you, and I've got a few friends that would volunteer their time as well to help get it out of the hole.

thepoolguy · Feb 22, 2008

hi ken, the grade was abandoned and property rights given to the land owners which the easement passed through, so i have clear deed to the property. as far as getting itout goes, i have access to cranes, excavators ect but the real problem i think will be dewatering. the water runs through the peat so fast that it will take massive pumps im sure. there is a new technology that freezes the area around the work site which would do 2 things... keep the water out and give you stable ground for the equipment to work on. as far as help goes ...heck yes ill take all i can get lol but first i need to find out if its there. any help there would be great. thanks again dave

jeff of pa · Feb 23, 2008

Cool on Owning the Property.

Yes Ken is right.

You should have Legal right to it, If there.

tle63me · Jan 28, 2013

Reply !

thepoolguy said:
wow thanks for all the info everyone! i like the idea of a compass ...as far as the water probe goes , i have thought about that but the actual grade is made of clay so going will be tougher than in the bog. we did push a 20 piece of 1/2 rerod into the bog by hand and never felt bottem so depth may well be an issue. lol and the house is not built on a bog it is on a clay knob about 40 above the level of the bog. i have been told that the way the rr co constructed these grades in swampy areas was to set explosive charges on the bog and then build the grade out of clay completly on top of the bog. once all the dirt was in place and high enough to be equel to the depth of the bog .....kaboom.....and the whole thing would sink untill it hit bottem making for a stable,weight supporting road. this being said the area im kinda thinking it may be at is where they would take on water out of a underground systern type thing that is still there. it is located near the edge of the bog where the fill that they sunk to make the grade out of would have landed on an angled bottem (think of the bog as bowl shaped) making for the possibility of a slide towards the center. the story i have heard is that it sunk while filling with water....ok so heres my theory. the engine may have been running but the drive not engaged making for a timed chug ..chug ...chug which could possably destablize things the same way a dog trotting across a suspension bridge can get the whole thing bouncing.....thats why they do not allow troops to "march" across a bridge. as far as it being "folklore" ....well who knows? but ive heard this from soooo many people that it seems as though something must have sunk there. also this type of accident was not unheard of in the early days of railroading. i have seen an artical about a train and 14 cars that sunk into the sceeny national wildlife refuge....which is basically a mammoth swamp in the u.p of michigan. the rr company made no attemt to recover anything as in those days there was no way to stablize the surrounding area to support the equipment needed to retrive it.....so it was filled over and the grade repaired. as far as ownership goes...the grade was abandoned by the rr co in the thirties and clear deed given to the owners of the land through which it traversed,so i think its "owner/finders" keepers. but...before i become know as the crazy guy digging holes in his driveway i would like to find some shred of documentation. do i just go to the library and start looking through a bazillion pages of newspapers? the time frame of the sinking may be a 30 year window....yikes...thats alot of newspapers. ive looked into some historians of the rr but i am hesitant to raise flags of protest to an indivdual retriving it rather than some thieving historical society looking to rob me of this very rare adventure. (thats what its all about isnt it?) hmmm wouldnt be all bad if it turned out to be worth a couple mill either lol. well i anxiously await replys of advice!!! btw...this site ROCKS...im 100% bitten by the bug...and not just sunken trains as i know of lots of potential sites ie old one room schools...maple shantys....the rr depot...all of which are now ground level and im sure still virgin to being detected. thanks to all for the replys dave

We have peat bottoms here twenty minutes from my house ! my grandfather talked about a steam engine jumping the tracks and going down so fast that the engineer did'nt have enough time to even jump to safety and went down with the train, Back at that time they did"t have equipment to retreave it , ( Ultimatly becoming a grave,) the family put a grave stone in the local cemetery with an empty grave, sadly they really don"t Know How deep the peat Bottoms Go? A gentleman that has Worked as a Crane operator For The existing peat company Thay"re Bought By Hyponex Corp Said He has Dug Peat Out Of The Bottoms For Ten Years And Still Has Not Hit Bottom . Its A Sad Story But Local Historians Claim Its Fact And In The County Historical Fact Books .