Southern Railway No. 401

Southern Railway No. 401 is a H-4 class 2-8-0 "Consolidation" type steam locomotive built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in December 1907 for the Southern Railway (USA) and is currently operating at the Monticello Railway Museum in Monticello, Illinois.
==History==
#401 was built as part of the H-4 class of 2-8-0s for branch line freight service on the Southern Railway. By the late 1940s, the H-4s were confined to yard switcher service on the Southern. In 1949, #401 was retired from the Southern Railway and was sold to the Alabama Asphaltic Limestone Company in Margerum, Alabama for use on their short line railroad, it was officially retired from revenue service in 1964 and was placed in outdoor storage. In 1967, the newly founded SPUR (Society for the Perpetuation of Unretired Railfans, later the Monticello Railway Museum) and moved to Decatur, Illinois for storage. In 1971, the locomotive was moved to the SPUR museum site in Monticello, where it became one of the museum's static display pieces.
In 1992, a private donor gave the museum money to return the locomotive to operation and work started later that year. After a lengthy rebuild, #401 returned to steam in 2010. Some of the work done to the locomotive included the fabrication and installation of a brand new boiler, a new tender, and new cab, as the originals were badly deteriorated to a point where they could not be reused.
Today, #401 operates once a month on the Monticello Railway Museum's excursion trains. It is scheduled to go down for a mandated Federal Railroad Administration rebuild in 2020.
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== Gallery ==
File:Southern -401 2-8-0 Consolidation, Baldwin, 1907.jpg|Southern Railway No. 401 on display at the Monticello Railway Museum in November 1985.
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File:Southern 401 1907.jpg|Southern Railway #401 after being built in November 1907 by Baldwin
File:401c.jpg
File:MRMX+Monticello+TWP+IL+5-18-18+runbys+at+crossing+A.jpg
Category:Built in 1907
Category:American locomotives
Category:2-8-0 steam locomotives
Category:Baldwin locomotives
Category:Tender locomotives
Category:Steam locomotives
Category:Eight-coupled locomotives
Category:Excursion locomotives
Category:Monticello Railway Museum
Category:Preserved locomotives
Category:Preserved steam locomotives
Category:American steam locomotives
Category:2-8-0 locomotives
Category:Standard gauge locomotives
Category:Standard gauge locomotives of the United States
Category:Southern Railway (US) locomotives