This is more like a roundhouse find than a barn find, even though it’s been sitting outside in the elements for six years now. This is quite a find and quite a project: a 1944 Baldwin 2-10-4 locomotive B&LE 643 from the Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad. It’s listed here on eBay in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and the seller has it listed for $375,000 or best offer. This one has to be saved!

“Hello, UShip? Yeah, I just bought a 1944 Baldwin steam train and.. click..” This is one incredible piece of history and it needs to be saved. Baldwin Locomotive Works in Eddystone, Pennsylvania is perhaps the most famous maker of locomotives on the planet, or they were up until 1956 when bankruptcy forced them to close their heavy iron doors and quit making these fantastic workhorses, or iron horses. 125 solid years of making over 70,000 locomotives had ended with diesel locomotives taking the overwhelming majority of the market share over steam-powered locomotives. That romantic steam train era will never return, unfortunately.

This model is known as a 2-10-4 and some of you may have heard steam trains being referred to by similar numbers in the past, known as the Whyte notation. In this case, that means that there is 1 leading axle (2 wheels), followed by 5 drive axles (10 wheels) and finally 2 trailing axles (4 wheels): 2-10-4. Now you know what it means in case it ever comes up among your circle of friends. And if it doesn’t come up, you need a new circle of friends. Train people are at least as passionate devotees to their vehicle of choice as any car guy or gal ever was.

For the record, one of the biggest steam trains ever built was a Union Pacific articulated locomotive – basically a single boiler with two locomotives attached to it – called Big Boy. It was a 4-8-8-4 and it weighed a mind-boggling 1,210,000 pounds! Here’s a photo of the only remaining, functioning Big Boy in action after a multi-year restoration that was completed literally a few days ago for the 150th anniversary of the Golden Spike ceremony in Utah on May 10, 2019. If that photo doesn’t get your heart beating I don’t know what will.

Some of us were fortunate enough to have lived in an era when steam trains were still working their rails off hauling the things that were needed to keep the U.S. and other countries moving forward. And, also helping to win wars. This train was in service for several years during WWII according to the seller. If they weren’t working as freight, ore, or coal haulers, many of us have seen and ridden on steam trains thanks to tourist railroads which keep a lot of these locomotives alive and well. Here’s an old photo of BLE 643 when it was in action.

There is a lot of chatter on the internet about this beautiful train: B&LE 643 or BLE 643 – #643 from the Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad. It sounds like this train has been for sale in the past and maybe the biggest problem is that BLE 643 is literally landlocked. Apparently, an Ohio-based organization called the Age of Steam Roundhouse, the largest collection of privately-owned locomotives in the world, tried to buy BLE 643 from the current owner a few years ago but they were turned down. A few years have passed since their offer was refused and CSX has since removed the switch which would have allowed BLE 643 to be moved off of the siding and onto their line to be moved “dead-in-tow” to a shop to be restored. If you thought that shipping your car was a hassle, just imagine trying to move a train!

There is almost literally no way to get this train to a shop to have it restored now. The streets where it’s located are too narrow and steep for it to be trucked anywhere, it’s literally stuck where it is. Warren Buffett, which oddly enough owns BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe), or a similar endless-pockets type of person or organization would have to step in to save and restore this beauty.

As you can see, the controls are just a wee bit more complicated than maybe any other vehicle this side of a space shuttle or ocean liner. BL&E 643 would pick up iron ore from boats on Lake Erie and haul it about 150 miles south to steel mills in North Bessemer in the Pittsburgh area starting in the early-1940s. It would then haul Pennsylvania coal back up to the lakeshore for the ore boats, it was a perfect system. No wonder there were so many steel, coal, railroad, and shipping barons in those days, they were all interrelated and they all made unbelievable fortunes. Sadly, it’ll take a fortune to somehow move this important piece of railroad history and get it restored, either for static display in a museum or even better would be to have it running the rails again. Are there any railroad fans out there?