ANOTHER MOHAWK THAT REFUSES TO ABDICATE.

Six years ago I called attention to a distinctive steam locomotive in preservation in Elkhart, Indiana.  "The Elkhart museum has one of the two surviving New York Central Mohawks (as in "The Mohawk That Refused to Abdicate") in its collection: that kettle being in Elkhart when a Texas museum decided having a New York Central steamer dressed up as a Texas and Pacific locomotive wasn't consistent with its mission."

As is often the case with railway preservation, a museum collection includes all manner of stock.

And now, she might steam again.

The Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society announced Wednesday that it had acquired New York Central L-3a “Mohawk” 3001 and planned to restore the 4-8-2 locomotive to operation for use on its popular Indiana Rail Experience excursions.

The 3001 is the largest surviving NYC steam locomotive and the only member of the L3a class to escape the scrapper’s torch. The locomotive was under the care of the City of Elkhart, Ind., and has been on display at the National New York Central Museum for decades.

The Fort Wayne group already own a functioning steam locomotive, Nickel Plate 765, which has ventured away from museum grounds and onto the common carriers.

As is always the case with railway preservation efforts, the good intentions have to be supported with good money

.If fully funded, the multi-year effort would include repairs to the boiler, firebox, running gear, and appliances. Initial inspections to the 1940-built L-3a of the American Locomotive Co. have already been performed by contractor and consultant FMW Solutions, with support from former Norfolk Southern CEO Wick Moorman.

Success would result in the first operational New York Central steam locomotive since May 1957. No. 3001 would join No. 765 as an excursion stablemate in the Indiana Rail Experience, the excursion partnership between the society and the Indiana Northeastern Railroad. The locomotive would operate on ex-NYC trackage between Coldwater, Mich., and Steubenville, Ind., with trains including passenger cars of the former “Great Steel Fleet.”

Details have yet to be released regarding No. 3001’s relocation to its restoration site, along with the other newly acquired equipment. Donor pledges can be made by mail to Re: 3001, PO Box 11017, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 46855, or online at the americanloco.org website.

The museum in Elkhart is coming to grips with what elements of its collection ought remain in its collection. "An assessment of the museum’s collection will be followed by a de-accession plan for select equipment, allowing qualified parties to express their interest in acquiring those pieces." That happens often with preservation railways.

A railroad that advertised itself as The Water Level Route surely could not roster any Mountains (although there were Berkshires on Boston and Albany as well as Pittsburgh and Lake Erie) and the Mohawks were a mixed traffic engine that could roll the freight.

“The L-3a looks like a passenger engine,” Trains Editor David P. Morgan once wrote in one of his most famous articles titled “The Mohawk that refused to abdicate, and other tales” in 1955. “After all, from the drop-coupler pilot back to the third pair of disc drivers she smacks of Hudson design in a blueprint that resists straight lines and luxuriates in smooth contours and subtle, feminine curves. No wonder Central publicists threw the word ‘Mountain’ out of their dictionary. Aside from the fact that The Water Level Route never let you forget it, an L-3a is the last locomotive on earth anyone would think of as a mountain engine. She is grace and speed, an aristocrat of multiple-track main lines and water troughs that would look as out of place on Tennessee Pass as a K-4 in Miami.”

The "refused to abdicate" refers to sister locomotive 3005 rolling the Dead Freight through Ohio.

As 3005's exploits later led to a book, collecting the various Trains article, it is good news that a sister engine with a checkered past, including a trip to Texas, might steam again

.The inspection team found no insurmountable obstacles to getting the 3001 back in shape, although at the press conference [Fort Wayne spokesman Kelly] Lynch acknowledged that the 4-8-2 is “worn out” and will need a lot of work, much of it yet to be revealed as the engine gives up its secrets in the shop. Lynch said the organization hopes the 3001 will move to its new restoration location by the end of 2025.

A not so incidental fact: the 3001 is a sister engine to the most famous Mohawk of all, NYC No. 3005, the main character in the drama known as “The Mohawk that Refused to Abdicate,” the David P. Morgan/Philip R. Hastings safari that appeared in book form in 1975. Both the 3001 and 3005 were part of the same order of L-3a engines that began arriving from Alco in late 1940. Alas, despite its heroics in Morgan’s story, the 3005 appears to have been retired between March and June 1956 and promptly scrapped.

But not the 3001. The fact that it was saved — almost alone among larger NYC power — is a minor miracle, one that occurred in what can only be described as freak circumstances. Retired and ready for scrap in 1957, the Central ended up selling the engine to an embarrassed Texas & Pacific Railroad to replace a T&P 2-10-4 that had suffered significant vandalism on display at the state fairgrounds in Dallas. Posing as “T&P 909,” the 3001 took up residence at the fair, and was later moved to the nearby Museum of the American Railroad in Frisco, Texas. In 1984 it came to Elkhart in an equipment swap.

Shortly after the fast run with that freight train, 3005 sideswiped another freight train and in those days any repairs to a steam locomotive that couldn't be put right with a spanner and an oil can were grounds to write them off.

The cover art for the book, on the other hand, is in the collection of the Center for Railroad Photography and Art.