Bevier & Southern / Sinnemahoning Valley 2-6-0 "Mogul" Locomotives in the USA

Class 112 (Locobase 14933)

Data from DeGolyer, Vol 65, pp. 26+. See also the blog entry on the Bevier & Southern at [] . Works number was 54016 in November 1921.

"Have Train -- Will Haul" declared the B&S as it emerged from a dissolution of the earlier Missouri & Louisiana in September 1914. It was the Missouri part and linked the towns of Bevier and Binkley. Its 63 miles (101.4 km) of track in 1915 provided much-needed passenger and freight service until 1926. Maximum grades were 2% and maximum curvature reached 19 degrees (radii of 200 feet/61 metres).

Larry Vaughan's godswoodshed post details just how the railroad served the people of the area: "Miners would gather at the Bevier roundhouse each morning to catch the 4AM passenger train and ride to work. School children would then ride the return train to Bevier so they could go to school. After school the children would walk down to the train station and wait for the train home. The return trip brought miners home from their day's work.

"The passenger train usually consisted of seven miners' coaches and coach number 204 for other passengers and the mail. Many people relied on the B&S not only for transportation, but also for jobs and to ship coal out that was mined in the Bevier area. The passenger service was discontinued in 1926 after post offices at Ardmore and Keota closed, and the postal contract was canceled."

Gradually shrinking to its eventual 9.8 miles (15.8 km), the railroad itself remained in operation for decades and continued in steam well into the 1960s.

After its retirement on 29 December 1962, the 112 was donated on 1 January 1963 put on display at the Bevier post office. Its display plaque notes that the engine traveled 364,562 miles (586,945 km) in its 43 years of service.

Class F H Goodyear (Locobase 11836)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 12, p.210. Works number was 7678 in October 1885. See the Western New York Rails site for a detailed history of the Sinnemahoning/Buffalo & Susquehanna -- []

After entering service on the SV and being taken into the Buffalo & Susquehanna, the by-now 101 was sold to the Oleana & Germania in Cross Fork, Pa as their #3. But the sale boomeranged on the B & S as it took over the O & G three years later and regained the 3, now renumbered 123. The engine remained with the B & S for another 15 years, then went to Hattiesburg, Miss to operate on the J J Newman Lumber rails beginning in 1910.