The exodus continues

In a recent post on RyPN, the Ironhorse Railroad Park of Chisago City, Minnesota has confirmed that the most recent departure from the old Indiana Transportation Museum site in Noblesville is Twin Branch Railroad 4. This fairly unique locomotive was one of two built in 1928 to operate a one-mile-long railroad serving a power plant in Mishawaka in northern Indiana. Both locomotives were built as battery locomotives, but later on they gained rooftop pantographs and acquired the ability to operate as normal electrics. It's thought that they retained their batteries for off-wire operation though. Upon retirement around 1970, TBRR 4 was acquired by ITM (then IMOTAC) and moved to Noblesville. During the 1970s and 1980s it was occasionally used for switching but for the last couple of decades has been on static display.

Ironhorse Railroad Park is an unusual destination for this unusual locomotive. IRP hadn't been on the PNAERC list at all until now; it's a small railroad museum in Minnesota mainly devoted to steam railroading. Other than a superficial resemblance to large steeplecabs used in mining operations in northern Minnesota, TBRR 4 has little local significance. But it's thought that the engine was acquired in part to prevent it from going to scrap, and for that we can be grateful it has found a new home.

There are now just four electrics left in Forest Park: a Lackawanna MU car, an interurban, a locomotive, and a streetcar body. At least some - and perhaps all - are likely to leave shortly.