HISTORY OF OUR STEAM ENGINE 7745

 The La Grange Railroad Museum Steam Engine MEAFORD #2 was constructed by Robert Stephenson & Hawthorne in 1951-1952.7745 worked shunting coal at the Meaford Power Station (pronounced MEFFORD) located on the River Trent near Stone in Staffordshire, England. It operated there from 1952 until 1970 when a diesel-powered engine replaced it.Original Picture provided by Gerald WorlandEngine 7745 was then sold and sold and moved to the Boyne City Railroad in Grand Falls, Michigan.Boyne City RailroadStarting in 1935, the Boyne City Railroad operated 7.2 miles of track between Boyne City and Boyne Falls. It was always an independent railroad. At peak operations, they had 13 locomotives and 180 employees. The operation ended in 1978, the line was abandoned in 1982.The Flying Duchess was sold and moved to the Tennessee Railway Museum in the early 1980s. During its stay at the Tennessee Railway Museum in Chattanooga, it was used in passenger museum operations for two to three years. In 2000, the locomotive was sold first to Indiana and later to a scrap yard in Louisville, Ky.  Some of the history and exact time-line are not entirely clear. But, for an extensive period of time, the engine was in a state of disrepair and neglect while resting in a weed-infested mess. Pictures of this time in its life are very telling in comparison to its current-day condition. The engine sat in the mercer transportation yard for over 10 years and came dangerously close to being cut up for scrap.Engine 7745 moved to La Grange on August 23, 2011. The unloading of the 80-ton engine was quite a spectacle in La Grange.The engine sits 20 feet from the CSX rails that run in the middle of Main Street in the business district.After arrival, the engine was painted in a flat black. In 2018, it was painted in its current colors by a team of craftsmen at the reformatory in La Grange.