This Consolidation type (2-8-0) locomotive was built in 1922 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, PA, for the Tennessee, Alabama & Georgia Railway as #101.
The TA&G was created through a reorganisation of the Chattanooga Southern Railway in 1911. The line ran from Chattanooga, TN, through northwest Georgia and into Gadsden, AL, and was clearly a testing route: the Baldwin specifications show #101 was designed to climb 2% grades and negotiate 20° curves. In 1922, CS was renamed the Tennessee, Alabama & Georgia Railway, also known as the TAG Route.
#101 has an engine wheelbase of 22’ and driver wheelbase of
14’ 6”. It weighs 133,600 lbs, 120,600 lbs on its 50” drivers. With
20” x 24” cylinders, a 30.3 sq ft grate, 144 sq ft firebox and total heating surface of 1,774 sq ft, it operated at a boiler pressure of 180 psi delivering 27,774 lbs tractive effort.
The tender weighs 100,000 lbs light and has a capacity of 5,000 gallons of water and 10 tons of coal.
The locomotive rebuilder/reseller Georgia Car & Locomotive bought #101 in 1931 and sold it on to the Fordyce & Princeton Railroad based in Fordyce, AR. The F&P was incorporated in 1890 and opened a narrow gauge line from Fordyce to Toan, AR. The line was converted to standard gauge in 1907 and additional spurs were built from Cynthiana to Trigg and Bryants.
#101 operated on the F&P for seventeen years until retired in 1948. It was donated the City of Little Rock, AR, in April 1960 and went on display at the city’s Children's Museum.
#101 was bought by Jim Gilham of Conway and relocated to his tie salvage and resale operation south of Little Rock in the late 1980s. Several locals worked on the locomotive at that time in hopes of restoration but Gilham lost ownership of it in divorce proceedings and the new owners had no interest in the locomotive.
In 2007, the locomotive was donated to Dallas County by the property's current owner on condition that the county move it to a new location. It is now on open display near the old Fordyce depot on W 1st Street in Fordyce, AR.
