Tarentum Borough Manager Bill Rossey tells the Tribune-Review that the engine has been offered to the borough at no cost as a tourist attraction. “There is an antique steam engine sitting in McKees Rocks that we are trying to get up here and put it on display,” he says. “Its been restored, and we want to keep it nice. It’s privately owned and the guys who own it approached me.” The prospective donors wish to remain anonymous. “In talking to them, it sounds to me like they have about $1 million in this engine. They don’t have any other place to put it,” he adds.
Rossey says the pavilion would be along Fifth Avenue. He says there are no firm figures, but he estimates the pavilion will cost about $250,000.
Baldwin built No. 643 in 1943. After steam was phased out on the Bessemer, the engine was retained and stored in the roundhouse in Greenville. It is the last remaining B&LE 2-10-4 from a fleet of 47. The engine remained stored by the railroad until 1983, when it was sold to Pittsburgh rail enthusiast Glen Campbell. Campbell restored and test fired the engine in the late 1980s, but it never pulled any excursions. It has been stored outdoors at the AGF Warehouse in an industrial area of McKees Rocks for several years.
If the engine is moved, it will have to be trucked out of its current location, since the track it rests on is no longer connected to the rail network.
