The Original Parktrains Website

The History of Parktrains

A Short (?) History of the 36" Gage Crown Metal Products Locomotives

by Denis M. Larrick

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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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