Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal No. 17 is an 0-6-0ST steam locomotive that was built in July 1918 by the H. K. Porter Company for the Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal.
This locomotive was designed to work as a dockside switcher for the Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal. When he arrived at Brooklyn at an unknown year, he was numbered and named Seventeen and was tasked to either switch freight cars, or take small trains of coal around the docks and onto railroad barges, often pulled by a tugboat.
When he was moved to the Great Western Railway of Colorado in 1965, he was bought to sort out freight trains. He was put on static display from 1986-2013.
In 2013, Seventeen was purchased by the East Western Railway in Groveland, MA, was originally going to be used to pull regular excursions. However, the manager thought of a brilliant idea. He was to renumber, re-letter and rename it to EWR No. 0.
Later that same year in 1998, When Britt Allcroft was looking for permission to film on Strasburg's Property for filming Thomas and the Magic Railroad, Strasburg approached her with the idea of converting #15 as a steam-powered replica of Thomas, to which she was reportedly thrilled. #15 would make its debut as Thomas in 1999, and it has remained in this guise ever since.
Trivia[]
- This engine is the only surviving Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal tank engine still in steam.
- This is the only operable steam locomotive to be converted into Thomas the Tank Engine in America; all others are non-powered replicas with steam generators which must be pushed by diesel locomotives.
- Besides operating for Day Out with Thomas events, the locomotive can also be found doing test runs or switching.
- During its first test fire up, the heat from the smokebox accidentally caused the eyes on Thomas' face to melt. However, this incident was never seen by the public and it was quickly resolved.
- It also has been occasionally transferred to other railroads for the same purpose, such as the Illinois Railway Museum, the Greenfield Village Line, the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, and the Belvidere and Delaware River Railway.
- Despite the fact that No. 15 was no longer in its original form, Wanamaker, Kempton and Southern Railroad No. 65 was once masqueraded as No. 15 back in 2004.