(MONETIZED) The Dark Truth of Why Grand Trunk Western 5629 Was Scrapped/ Halloween/7K-sub Special

#AndrewRailaBammers #TheRocketCityRailfan #Preservation #scrapping #Jensen #steamlocomotive #tragedy #history #5639 #GTW #Halloween

The original video received a copyright complaint over an image of Burlington Route 5632 that I didn't know required permission to use. So, I redownloaded the video covered over the image with different ones as per the request of the user who informed me and removed the original so as to avoid a copyright claim and possible strike.

The video was finished and uploaded over months prior this august before I returned to Pennsylvania to continue college.

Thanks to recent efforts of @HistoryintheDark, and the backing a two-part article “A passion for steam” the internet is beginning to realize that in actuality, Metra was not to blame for 5629's scrapping, but rather the locomotive's owner Richard Jensen mostly was, and that Metra being responsible and hating steam locomotives was nothing, but false rumors spread after 5629's death.
Exposing my siding with that I didn't know then were these false rumors back in my channel's infancy in 2021 is my greatest mistake, and I've sought to rectify it ever since watching History In The Dark's 5629 video on the very day it released. Even then, this doesn’t change the fact that the story of the 5629 is one of the most controversial in US railroad history.

5629 is a Grand Trunk Western K4-a Pacific built by ALCO in 1924, and a copy of the USRA light pacific. She was retired in 1959 and saved from scrap by Richard "Dick" Jenson, who had the locomotive refurbished for excursion service under private ownership by 1960. In the process, Jensen-a rather eccentric man, made minor alterations of his own using spare parts, making 5629 more closely resemble the USRA light pacific design. He later swapped out 5629's original tender for one from a scrapped Soo Line 4-8-2.

For the rest of that decade, 5629 established itself as a beloved excursion star throughout the Chicago area and the northeast. In 1968, Robert Claytor, the president of the Southern railway offered to purchase the 5629 from Jensen to be dolled up as a Ps-4 Pacific for the railway's steam program. But Jensen refused, claiming the K4a was worth an absurd amount of money compared to the selling price.

5629 ran for the last time in 1969, never to run again due to Jensen running into financial troubles, which only worsened when he broke his back in a freak accident in 1977, making future operations with the locomotive unaffordable. Due to Jensen's behavior of renting space and taking his locomotives wherever they went, 5629 ended up in storage of the Rock Island Railroad's Blue Island yard, instead of just being sold to a railroad museum or heritage railroad. After Metra acquired the Blue Island Yard, they asked Jenson to remove the 5629 from the yard, because they couldn't do so since he was its owner. Jenson agreed, but after discovering that it was being vandalized, he decided to leave 5629 to rot in the yard so that Metra would hopefully scrap it, and then he could sue them for damage to his property and win enough money to fix his financial troubles, whilst refusing to let anyone else move it for him.

As he'd hoped Metra eventually contacted the Erman-Howell Division of the Luria Brothers Scrap Company to scrap 5629, but by the time they did, they had taken the feud to court, who had given them the order to dispose it even though they didn't want to. When Jensen sued, he lost the case.

All that remains of 5629 is a handful of parts including the bell and headlight, which he had removed from the locomotive, in private collections of railfans he sold them to.

There is so much to unpack in 5629’s entire history, especially the scrapping, but I can only cover so much at one time.

Fortunately, two other Grand Trunk Western "pacific"s survive today. K-4-b 5632 is displayed in Durand Michigan, and J-3-b 5030 is awaiting a full restoration at the Coalbrookdale Railroad of Boyertown, Pennsylvania.

See rare images of 5629's scrapping: https://www.trainorders.com/discussio...

Video/audio footage used:
   • Grand Trunk Western #5629 Real Whistle   

   • Grand Trunk Western 4-6-2 5629 aerial chase  

   • Death of a locomotive. Ex BNSF, SD-40-2 cu...  

Learn more:

http://thetracksidephotographer.com/2...

http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic....

   • Illegally Sold and Scrapped | Chicago, Bur...  

   • The (Preventable) Death of a Steam Engine ...  

https://www.trainorders.com/discussio...

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