Image: St. Paul & Pacific William Crooks steam locomotive

Description: Description on Flickr: This engine is on display at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth, Minnesota. From museum signage (typos & grammar corrected; most abbreviations spelled out): St. Paul and Pacific William Crooks 1861 The St. Paul & Pacific was the first railroad in Minnesota and the William Crooks was the first steam locomotive to run in the state. Eventually the St. Paul and Pacific became the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba in 1879 and in 1890, it became part of the Great Northern Railway. The locomotive was constructed by the New Jersey Locomotive and Machine Company of Paterson, New Jersey, and is named for William Crooks, chief mechanical engineer of the St. Paul and Pacific, and colonel of the Sixth Regiment, Minnesota volunteers, in the Civil War. The Williams Crooks arrived in St. Paul by steamboat on September 9, 1861. On June 28, 1862, the locomotive hauled the historic first trainload of passengers in Minnesota, a distance of 10 miles between St. Paul and St. Anthony, which is now the city of Minneapolis. Regular service between St. Paul and St. Anthony began on July 2, 1862. One of the few remaining locomotives of the Civil War period, the Crooks was retired from active service around the turn of the century. In its heyday, the locomotive handled "Empire Builder" James J. Hill's private trains as well as regular passenger trains of the period. The engine weighs 28 tons (51 tons with tender) and is 50 feet, 8.25 inches in length. The Crooks was built as a wood burner. In recent times the Crooks traveled under its own steam to the Chicago and New York world fairs. Its last trip under steam was to the railroad fair in Chicago in 1948. The locomotive was donated to the Minnesota Historical Society by the Great Northern Railway and was later moved to Duluth in May 1975.
Title: St. Paul & Pacific William Crooks steam locomotive
Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/22288212945/
Author: James St. John
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
License: CC BY 2.0
License Link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0
Attribution Required?: Yes