A Short (?) History of the 36" Gage Crown Metal Products Locomotives
The Big Diesel(s)
Although most of the diesels produced by Crown were in 24" gage (they looked
exactly like the 24" gage steamers except for piping and a muffler sticking
up out of the tender), one or two engines qualify to be included in this
history because they were big enough for the crew to ride inside the cab
and were built from 36" gage parts. Crown built one or more 30" gage
diesel-hydraulic 4-4-0 steam outline locomotives towards the end of the company's
life. They had 3500 lbs. of tractive effort and were driven by a gearbox
on the front drive axle (the second pair of drive wheels received power through
the side rods from the first pair). The engine was a six cylinder,
330 cu. in. Waukesha. They had 42" drivers and were 34' long over the
tender. The 30" gage Crown diesel-hydraulic 4-4-0 engines used the
domes, bell, pilot wheels, headlight components and drive wheels of the 36"
gage Crowns, but the coaches resembled the 24" gage coaches. The engine's
cylinders were small and inclined. Perhaps they were castings from
Crown 24" gage engines, or perhaps they came from some small Porter engines
that Crown found cheap (H.K. Porter WAS in Pittsburgh). That is a story
to research at another time.
When I was with Kings Island, Kings Productions was planning the (now Paramount's)
Canada Wonderland park north of Toronto, and supposedly Crown was building
at least one of these 30" gage engines for that park. A picture in
the 1982 Crown catalog shows #1 with front foot boards (instead of a cowcatcher)
on the test track at the Crown plant which might have been for that park.
But even though advance publicity in the year before Canada Wonderland's
opening featured a train ride as one of the attractions, no train ride was
ever installed. I have heard two stories: (1) Canadian red tape forbid
foreign locomotives and therefore the engine never arrived at the park, and
(2) the engine really was shipped to Toronto but was never used and then
went to a fairgrounds in Wisconsin. I don't have a clue which is true,
but maybe if someone is reading this in Wisconsin, they can research that
part of the story. We do know that Dorney Park in Allentown, PA installed
a 30" gage Crown (the "Cedar Creek Cannonball") in the early 1990's, shortly
after the park was acquired by Cedar Fair. It looks exactly like the
one in the catalog except it has a cowcatcher, but that could have been added
later. So we have another great mystery for park railroad trivia fans:
is the Dorney engine really ex-Wisconsin, ex-ex-Canada, or was it built new
for Dorney?
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