| Northwestern Steel & Wire 0-6-0 number 4 at Sterling, Illinois on November 11, 1958, Kodachrome by unknown photographer, Chuck Zeiler collection. This locomotive was built in 1919 by the Cooke Works of the American Locomotive Company (Alco) for the CB&Q (c/n 61384). It was one of ten USRA design 0-6-0's that Alco delivered to the Burlington, numbered 500-509, calssed G-5. All lasted into 1953-1954, this one was sold for scrap to Northwestern Steel and Wire (NSW) in December 1954. However, NSW found a few of the Burlington's 0-6-0 serviceable, and put them to work shuffling scrapped steam locomotives from the scrap yard to the furnaces, turning locomotives into wire. This one, former CB&Q 504, became NSW 4 by the simple expedient of painting out the 50, leaving the number 4. One of the products of NSW was nails, and the unofficial slogan of NSW (at least among railfans) was that there was a steam locomotive in every box of NSW nails. The CB&Q 0-6-0's lasted in this service until about 1959, when the GTW sold their 0-8-0's for scrap to NSW, and the 0-8-0's shuffled the 0-6-0's to the furnaces. |