Based on a USRA design, #8373 was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philapdelphia in 1929, one of over seventy 0-8-0 switchers bought by the Grand Trunk Western for its Chicago-Detroit system. It weighs 215,150 lbs and
has 51" drivers and 22" x 28" cylinders. Operating at a
boiler pressure of 200 psi, it delivered 45,175 lbs tractive effort.
This engine is one of sixteen 0-8-0s that the Grand Trunk Western sold for scrap in 1960 to the Northwestern Steel & Wire Company in Sterling, IL. Rather than cut them up, however, NS&W chose to use them as switch engines in their yard and some survived in service into the early 1980s. #8373 was renumbered #73 under NS&W ownership and operated in daily service until the mill owner's death in 1980. After retiring in 1981, it was donated to the Paul W. Dillon Home Museum in Sterling, IL, and is on display with Missouri Pacific steel cupola caboose #13252.
A number of other P5as have been preserved. You can see #8300 liveried as IC #30 on the GTW #8300 page of this website, #8376 on the GTW #8376 page and #80 liveried as GTW #8380 on the Illinois Railway Museum Yard page.
