Town Creek RR & Lumber Company 0-4-2 Locomotives in the USA

Class unknown (Locobase 16476)

Data from "Details of Locomotives at the World's Columbian Exposition - Third Article", Railroad Gazette, Volume 25 (24 November 1893), pp. 848-849 and 851. See also "North Carolina Railroads - Wilmington, Brunswick & Southern Railroad" on the North Carolina website at [], last accessed 8 February 2020. (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 13 January 2020 email and well-drafted spreadsheet, the latter noting the absence of this locomotive from Locobase and providing detailed data and source information.) Works number was 1445 in January 1893.

This little street motor appeared in the Porter exhibit at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair as Porter's "City and Suburban" offering. It was quite tiny, even for a tram motor. Perhaps its low power explains why its whereabouts for the next thirteen years seem to be unknown. The next operator seems to have been the short-lived TCRR&LC, which bought the motor in March 1906. By then, Locobase suspects, the tram body had long since disappeared..

This North Carolina short line ran from the Atlantic Coast Line's junction at Navassa, just northwest of Wilmington, to Bolivia --about 17 miles (27 km) to the southwest--and opened in 1907. Apparently finances prevented it from going further and a new charter was issued to the Wilmington, Brunswick & Southern. The "Willing, But Slow" extended the line southeast from Bolivia for 13 more miles (21 km) to Southport at the mouth of the Cape Fear river. That section opened in 1912.

The motor next worked for Brooks and Taylor of Wilmington, NC and in August 1915, for J T Carroll of Lake Waccamaw, NC about 44 miles (71 km) northwest of Wilmington..