For about a decade, a train sat on display at the historic Piedmont & Northern Railway depot in Belmont painted for the Milltowne Railway Line, a fictional railroad. The train had been moved to the site by Steve Pepitone, owner of South Main Cycles which calls the old depot home.
Kids and sometime adults often climbed on them which became a liability issue for him and the city. A fence would have taken away from the aesthetics. So the train was moved off site.
The history of the non-existent Milltowne Railway and the train display was rather short and easy to find online, the history of the train itself was not as easy.
Noted railroad photographer Robert Graham was gracious enough to share with me what he knew about the train engine.
It was built in March 1949 as Pacific Great Eastern Railway 553 (b/n 30038) to Sidney & Loisburg 60 to Devco Railway #60 to Laurinburg & Southern Railroad 107 (in October 1972) to Fairmont & Western 107, which was owned by the LRS at the time.
