Manchester Locomotive Works

What we know for sure is that locomotive 508 was built by Manchester Locomotive Works Company in 1885.

I got a package in the mail today from Carl Riff of Hamilton Ontario sharing a very interesting story with me. The story of the Mulberry locomotive which is also a Manchester locomotive...date unknown. I beleive this illustrates real well what locomotive 508 would likely look like if still resting at the bottom of the Saint John River. I like what they did with it by simly placing it on display in it's discovered condition. I cut and pasted the following from the article.

"It looks like a Manchester 4-4-0," said Joe Spann, manager of the Polk County Genealogical Library and a local railroad historian.

"These are very rare, so this is an amazing find," he said.

But the implication extends beyond Polk County. Bob LaPrelle, president and chief executive officer of the Museum of the American Railroad in Dallas, confirmed Spann's opinion.

"It's relatively rare," he said. "Most steam locomotives that we've seen date from about 1900. Before that, there's not a lot of those around."

The locomotive in this story (& video) and locomotive 508 were made by the same company and would strongly resemble one another as they were built in the same era.

Locomotive 508 was classed as a 4-4-0 standard type locomotive built in 1885 at Manchester locomotive Works in Manchester, New Hampshire for the New Brunswick Railway (NBR).

Very cool story coming to light for me on this day...weird!