WESTERN INDIANA AGGREGATE & STONE CO. #1 “DUMPY”

Builder: ALCO
Build Date: April 1929
Type: 0-4-0T Switcher
Status: Display

The Monticello Railway Museum’s first piece of equipment was this 0-4-0T type switcher steam locomotive, No. 1. It was built in April of 1929 at the American Locomotive Company in Schenectady, New York, for use at the Western Indiana Aggregate & Stone Company’s quarry in Montezuma, Indiana. It was designed for low speed industrial runs and was perfect for the operation there.

This locomotive is a “tank engine,” meaning it has a “saddle” tank wrapping around the boiler for storing water and a bunker on the left side of the cab for storing coal, instead of having a tender behind it like traditional steam locomotives. There was no space for a fireman in the cab of this locomotive when in use at the quarry; these small industrial locomotives were frequently designed to be handled entirely by the engineer.

No. 1 was retired in 1960 and placed into outdoor storage in Montezuma. It was here that members of the museum, then known as SPUR, located and purchased it in 1966 for use in Monticello.

Upon arriving in Monticello, it was placed on a short section of track in the Illinois Pioneer Heritage Center’s parking lot in downtown Monticello. The Heritage Center had encouraged the then-new museum to establish their operation in Monticello, and generously allowed them to keep the locomotive on their property until a permanent location for the museum was found. While efforts were ongoing to establish that permanent location, volunteers worked in the parking lot to get No. 1 operating. It was test fired in May 1968. Around this time, the locomotive was nicknamed “Dumpy.”

In 1970, Dumpy was moved to the new museum site and operated there for the first time on October 13, 1970. For the next 18 years, Dumpy operated frequently at the museum alongside Republic Steel No. 191, the museum’s other operating steam locomotive at that time. During its time operating at the museum, its saddle tank was removed and a tender from a scrapped Illinois Central steam locomotive was paired with it instead.

In 1988, No. 1 was taken out of service. It was in need of extensive repairs and the Monticello Railway Museum had grown to the point where No. 1 was now too small for our needs. As a result, it made little sense to invest the funds that would be required to return it to a good state of repair. It was decided to return it to its as-built appearance and place it on display. Its saddle tank was reinstalled, the tender was removed, and a back wall was put on the cab. Today, our first locomotive greets visitors to the museum at the entrance to Iron Horse Place in Monticello.

Scroll down to see more photos of Dumpy over the years.