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Age of Steam Acquires B&LE 2-10-4 No. 643

Age of Steam’s “King” Arrives: B&LE 2-10-4 No. 643 Secured, Reassembled, and Unveiled

Published: February 21, 2025

When the Age of Steam Roundhouse Museum in Sugarcreek, Ohio, rolled out Bessemer & Lake Erie 2-10-4 No. 643 for public viewing in 2025, it wasn’t simply a new exhibit debuting under roof—it was the culmination of one of preservation’s longest, most complicated rescue stories. A locomotive conceived as an industrial sledgehammer for Great Lakes ore drags, No. 643 survived dieselization, decades of storage, repeated moves around the Pittsburgh area, and an often-frustrating restoration effort that never quite reached seeing the engine under steam. In 2025, however, the “King” finally reached a secure home: cosmetically restored, reassembled, and displayed inside one of the nation’s premier steam collections.

Bessemer & Lake Erie 2-10-4 #643 is seen here inside the Age of Steam roundhouse on August 23, 2024.

Age of Steam’s 2025 milestone centered on completion and presentation. The museum finished a cosmetic restoration and scheduled the locomotive’s public debut for March 29, 2025 (during the museum’s Member Day), placing the massive Texas-type inside the roundhouse alongside more than twenty other steam locomotives.

That public reveal followed a logistical feat that began years earlier. The museum had purchased No. 643 in 2019—explicitly described as a tribute to the late Jerry Joe Jacobson, Age of Steam’s founder, who had long wanted the locomotive he nicknamed “The King.” But getting the locomotive to Sugarcreek would take far longer than writing a check.

Background

No. 643 was constructed by Baldwin in 1944, near the end of a long lineage of B&LE 2-10-4s built to shove extreme tonnage between the Lake Erie ore docks at Conneaut, Ohio, and the steelmaking region around Pittsburgh. Classic accounts of B&LE operations emphasize the punishing grades and the railroad’s single-minded focus: moving iron ore south and coal north in staggering quantities.

Age of Steam characterizes No. 643 as the only surviving example among 47 B&LE Texas-types, designed for heavy-haul commodities—iron ore, coal, and other dense freight. The museum also notes an early retirement in 1952 as diesel power rapidly displaced steam on the B&LE roster.

In regular service, No. 643’s working life was surprisingly brief—roughly eight years before retirement, as summarized in railfan press coverage of the locomotive’s later restoration and display. That short career doesn’t reflect insignificance; it reflects the pace of postwar dieselization and the reality that B&LE’s 2-10-4s were specialized machines built for a very specific industrial mission.

Preservation, Phase I: saved by the railroad—then sold

Unlike nearly all of its sisters, No. 643 was spared the torch and kept by the B&LE, stored for years in the railroad’s roundhouse at Greenville, Pennsylvania. Age of Steam notes that No. 643 (along with “two other smaller steamers”) remained preserved there after retirement.

By the early 1980s, the locomotive left B&LE ownership, sold to private owner Glenn Campbell—an inflection point that set off decades of uncertainty. Railfan & Railroad summarizes what followed: an attempt to restore the engine to operation began in the 1980s, significant work was completed by the late 1990s, but the locomotive never ran and remained in storage for decades.

Preservation, Phase II: “turbulent years” around Pittsburgh

If No. 643’s survival is remarkable, its path was anything but smooth. The locomotive was moved to “various locations around Pittsburgh” after leaving Greenville, as Campbell pursued the dream of returning the giant to steam—an effort that ultimately fell short.

Age of Steam, in its own acquisition announcement, publicly thanked Campbell and the Steel City Railway Historical Society for “saving B&LE 643 in McKees Rocks, Pa.” and recognized the Ernest Stern family (including Rick Stern) for involvement and financial investment during critical phases of earlier work. That combination—private ownership, volunteer support, and periodic fundraising—kept the locomotive intact, but also underscored how fragile the situation could be when a 450+ ton machine is stored outdoors, landlocked, and expensive to move.

By 2019, the saga drew broader attention. Multiple sources describe how the locomotive’s listing and perceived risk helped spur action; Wikipedia’s summary states the engine was offered for sale online and that a reduced asking price helped lead to a buyer. While details vary by retelling, what’s consistent across mainstream railfan coverage is the end result: Age of Steam bought No. 643 in 2019, with the museum openly framing the move as fulfilling Jacobson’s long pursuit of “The King.”

Even after purchase, the locomotive couldn’t simply be towed out on its own wheels. The effort included months of planning and an extraordinary solution: separating No. 643 into major components—boiler on one flatcar, frame/running gear on another—to navigate clearance and weight restrictions. The pieces arrived in Sugarcreek on January 31 (2024), with reassembly and parts organization beginning in the backshop environment that Age of Steam is known for.

For many fans, the natural question is, “Will it run?” The most direct answer is no: the museum has indicated there are no plans to steam up No. 643, citing practical limitations—particularly the infrastructure required to host a locomotive of this scale. Instead, the project’s goal has been conservation, reassembly, cosmetic restoration, and interpretation.

In that context, 2025’s debut is a significant preservation victory: No. 643 is no longer a landlocked, weather-beaten giant awaiting the next uncertain move. It’s indoors, stabilized, and displayed as an artifact of heavy-haul steam at its industrial apex.

643 at a glance

Because published specs can vary slightly by source (rated vs. calculated tractive effort, “as built” vs. later documentation), the figures below reflect commonly cited reference values.

Category	Specification
Locomotive	Bessemer & Lake Erie No. 643
Wheel arrangement	2-10-4 (Texas type)
Builder / year	Baldwin Locomotive Works / 1944
Driver diameter	64 in
Cylinders	Two, 31 in × 32 in
Boiler pressure	250 psi
Tractive effort	~96,700 lbf (rated); with booster ~109,800 lbf (class figures)
Fuel / water (tender)	Coal / ~23,000 gal water
Service retirement	1952

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