Valley Railroad 3025

Retired2006RestoredNovember 25, 2011Current ownerConnecticut Valley RailroadDispositionOperational

Valley Railroad 3025 is a China Railways SY class steam locomotive that was built in 1989 by the Tangshan Locomotive and Rolling Stock Works for the Knox and Kane Railroad of Pennsylvania, US, where it remained until that railroad's demise. It was purchased by the Valley Railroad Company of Connecticut in 2008, and later rebuilt as a masquerade of a New Haven J-1 "Mikado" locomotive and re-numbered 3025.^[2]

Knox and Kane Railroad 1658, as it was then known, was one of three China Railways SY class steam locomotives that were built by the Tangshan Locomotive and Rolling Stock Works in 1989 exclusively for tourist operations in the United States. Sloan Cornell, the founder of the Knox and Kane Railroad, purchased the locomotive at an undisclosed cost, and it arrived in Pennsylvania in the beginning of 1990.^[2]

The locomotive ran for the Knox and Kane between 1990 and spring of 2006, when the railroad ceased all operations.^[2] In storage in an engine house in Kane, locomotive 58 and other rolling stock was subjected to an early-morning arson attack on March 16, 2008. The locomotive was severely damaged, more so than its housemate, the 2-8-0 No. 38, which had thicker boiler skin. Its cab was lined with wood, which was completely destroyed.^{[citation needed]}

On October 10,2008, the locomotive was purchased at a liquidation auction by the Valley Railroad.^[3] The new owners restored the locomotive to operating condition, and transformed its appearance to that of a New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad locomotive, numbered 3025.^[4] Restoration was completed in 2011, and the locomotive entered revenue service on November 25, 2011, pulling the North Pole Express and becoming one of the railroad's regular road locomotives.^[2]

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  Valley Railroad 3025 operating as Knox and Kane No. 58 in July 1990
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  No. 3025 being parked near the Kinzua Bridge as Knox and Kane No. 58 in October 2001
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  3025 operating on the Connecticut Valley Railroad in 2011, after being restored.
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  Firebox doors of 3025
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  3025 at Goodspeed Station during the Lee Carlson Memorial Photo Charter on April 24, 2021.
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  3025 at Tate’s Cut in Deep River on September 24, 2021
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  VALE 3025 about to depart from Essex on December 17, 2021