Have a few questions concerning ACL 1504. 1. Where was she shopped for overhaul, was it at Tampa? 2. After it was shopped and overhauled was it sent to Jacksonville under her own power? 3. Does anyone have any knowledge of any photographs of her overhaul, seeing as how this was one Champion Davis's pet projects I am sure he had company photographers make some kind of record of it. 4. Are there any records of her overhaul that survive in some collection somewhere. 5. Does anyone have and pictures of her is service? I have the usual pictures that you can get from the usual photo vendors, I am looking for something out of the ordinary.

-- Brad Grant (clangrant@santafe.cc.fl.us), November 01, 2001

Answers

Just going by memory from several photos and other items in my files: 1504 appears to have been overhauled for preservation at Tampa, where it had been in storage after retirement. The engine's last active assignment was on the ex-AB&C out of Fitzgerald, Ga., around 1951 or 1952. By around 1956 it was sitting outside the Tampa shops, and by 1958 or so it was fenced off and on display outside the shops. At that point it had been painted in a non-standard scheme with the ACL script herald with state names on the tender, rather than the "state- less" herald actually used in steam days. As the new ACL office building was being constructed in Jacksonville in 1959 and 1960, 1504 was moved there for display as the building was in its later stages. By that time the authentic herald version had been applied. I am certain it was moved dead-in-tow. I am aware of no existing records of the overhaul itself nor of any company photos taken during the overhaul process.

-- Larry Goolsby (LGoolsby@aphsa.org), November 02, 2001.