![ACL E-4 #143, South Ft. Myers, FL ACL E-4 #143, South Ft. Myers, FL](thumbs/flacl143/flacl143.jpg)
The Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, PA, built
0-6-0 Class E-4 #143 in 1905 for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. Weighing 108,365 lbs, the engine has 51” drivers and 19” x 24” cylinders. Operating at a boiler pressure of 180 psi, it delivered 26,510 lbs tractive effort.
#143 worked at various locations on the ACL system until it was sold to the American Agricultural Chemical Co., in Pierce, FL, in 1944. It worked hauling phosphate trains from the mines to the main line railroads until 1959 and then went on display at the company's office in Pierce. In 1974, the locomotive was donated to the Tampa Bay Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society and moved to San Antonio, FL. In 1979, it was donated to William Savage and moved to Tampa, FL. Some time after Savage’s death in 1982, it was then sold to the Florida Gulf Coast Railroad Museum.
Ten years later, the Florida Gulf Coast Museum offered #143 to the newly established Railroad Museum of South Florida in Fort Myers, FL. It is now on display in Lakes Regional Park in South Ft. Myers.