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Locomotive "Ruby"

Waterloo Area Historical Society

Capital Area District Library

Railroads

Railroad locomotives

Stockbridge (Mich.)

JQ04a002

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This engine named "Ruby" was a wood burner built in Jackson, Mi sometime in the 1870s. She was assigned to pull the Boston Board of Trade the last leg of the trip from Boston to Chicago. The "Ruby" was coupled on at Detroit and took the train to Chicago, being the first locomotive on the Michigan Central to make this run of 285 miles without changing engines. In the early 1880s she was converted to a coal burner, done away with the name Ruby and was number 100. This picture was owned by J.C. McGlinch, who fired the engine in 1896, then scrapped about 1900. (This information was provided by the family at the time the picture was donated to the Waterloo Area Farm Museum.)