14-03-2025
Engine 5, Steuben County workhorse on 'Champagne Route', acquired by Rochester area museum
An historic 75-year-old diesel locomotive that served Steuben County for decades will have new life at the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum.
"Engine 5," which currently sits on the Bath & Hammondsport Railroad in Cohocton, has been acquired from the Steuben County Industrial Development Agency and the Livonia, Avon & Lakeville Railroad.
The Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum will preserve Engine 5 and have it on display for visitors at its facility in Rush, about 20 minutes south of downtown Rochester. Jamie Johnson, executive director of the Steuben County IDA, said the train is an "important piece of local railroad history."
"Engine 5 helped transport goods throughout the region, playing a vital role in supporting our economy and the efforts of the railroad museum will help educate the public on the role the railroad has and will continue to play in our business development activities," said Johnson.
Engine 5, a 660-horsepower diesel switcher, was constructed in March 1950 by the American Locomotive Company in Schenectady. It was reassigned to a freight car manufacturing and repair facility in East Rochester in January 1965, according to the museum.
When the shops closed five years later, the train was sold to Steuben County for operation on the Bath & Hammondsport Railroad. The B&H can be traced back to 1872 when it connected Hammondsport at the south end of Keuka Lake with the Erie Railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad at Bath.
The B&H became known as "The Champagne Route" as the wine industry grew in the Finger Lakes, with many wineries serving as customers of the railroad. The B&H expanded in 1976 when it became the operator of IDA-owned track between Bath and Wayland. Twenty years later, the county named Livonia, Avon & Lakeville the new operator of the combined B&H lines, which included a 2001 expansion from Bath to a connection with Norfolk Southern at Painted Post.
Engine 5 was sidelined and designated as surplus by LA&L in recent years as freight traffic increased on the B&H and more powerful diesel locomotives were required on the railroad.
The museum acquired Engine 5 in February after the idea was presented by the Flour-by-Rail Legacy Project.
"We are excited to preserve this historic diesel locomotive and return it to Rochester," said R&GV Museum vice president Jackson Glozer. "Besides helping preserve the history of Bath & Hammondsport Railroad, this diesel also worked locally at Despatch Shops in East Rochester, replacing a steam locomotive of the same number which we also just added to our collection a few years ago."
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The museum has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help offset the cost of transportation from Steuben County to Rush.
The campaign had raised roughly a quarter of its $9,500 goal as of Thursday afternoon.
This article originally appeared on The Leader: Railroad Museum buys Bath & Hammondsport train from Steuben County IDA
