Lost Southern railway locomotive in river

[Doneldon]

Woody-

You wrote, "I would think that any engine in the water for decades would be mostly rust."

Not necessarily. Think of all of the iron cannons from the 16^th to 18^th centuries they bring up from the ocean, or the packet boat which was buried in the Missouri River and its mud for over 100 years and which is now on display in Kansas City, MO, including glass jars of food whose steel lids are still sealed and whose contents are still edible. The boat also had the complete inventory for a hardware store which is displayed as if it were a functioning hardware store and most of the ferrous items look new, not just good. And this is not because anyone polished them up, either. Or the many tons of Civil War steel and iron which have been brought up from water and soil. Some of these things look almost like new even though they are 150 years old and weren't cared for at all. Often water preserves wood and steel quite well, especially if it's cold and not full of corrosive chemicals. There's not a lot of free oxygen in water, especially deep or quiescent water, so rust is pretty much stopped at the surface. Paradoxically, submerged ferrous metals degrade very rapidly once they are exposed to air which is why so many things have to be sealed or treated by electrolysis. (No, not the kind for facial hair.)
                                                                                                        -- D

[Woody Elmore]

This is way off topic but one of the main sources of steel that has not been exposed to radiation comes from the scuttled WW1 German fleet. The German crews took them to Scapa Flow and opened the sea cocks. You need un-iradiated steel to make tools used to measure radiation.

I had forgotten about the differences between being in fresh water as opposed to sea water. I still think that most of the "engine in the water" stories are just fables. 

It would be great if one were found!

[GRZ]

Terry 2 foot.the person that gave you that information was 100% correct. the river back in the late 40s was lots smaller then,and the tracks were very close to it,when the mill was replced with a hydro& dam it made a large pond,I under stand the track was moved eastward to bypas the river.grz ps the little town of LEWISTON is no longer,I have a postmark from the p office there..g

[Doneldon]

Woody-

You are almost certainly correct that most of the steamer in the river stories are more fable than fact, just like the rare old Maseratti in the barn stories. However, they do turn out to true every once in a while.
                                                                                                                                     -- D

[NarrowMinded]

Don't forget google Maps most places you can zoom in very close if you know a general area you can spot things at times.

NM

[GRZ]

here we go again no I cannot back up my story! but likeI said I stood on this locomotive. and at the time I thought it had the shape of something like it then when I was telling ED,then he filled me in on what had happend at that time with the dam and hydro.as far as flying over and looking in the river and seeing anything no way!! that river is very dingy and murky..I boat that river a lot as I live not far from it and the wake my boat makes is coffee in color,and I never pass this area that I dont think of that poor kid and why I was there in the first place..if HARY FRYE the B&M    historian like you said why did he miss this one??I would like to know that.plus the thing is 16 or 18 feet down.IM done with this!! I will listen to the news of it being found again however,that will be fun..

[NarrowMinded]

Hey GRZ, sure it wasn't a boiler from a steam boat?

NM

[Joe Satnik]

Griz,

I don't doubt that the loco is there.  Can you to narrow down its location in the reservoir? 

Play around with google maps, bing maps or another on-line map of your choice.   

A fishing boat with a fish finder (sonar) could go along the 16 foot contour and find it.  A underwater fishing camera (which normally have lights) could get images of it. 

If there are fish in the reservoir there are probably fishermen with that equipment already floating.  If they also had a GPS they could mark the spot when they found it...