Mission Creek No. 6

Tobie's Mill And Mission Creek Railroad No. 6, named Virginia, is an unclassified 0-4-0 Porter-type saddle tank steam locomotive built by H.K. Porter, Inc. in 1926.
==History==
No. 6 was being restored by Mel Aston of the Cincinnati, Ohio area in hopes of getting a right of way in a local forest preserve. When that failed, the locomotive sat next to an antique store in Miamitown for many years. After Aston's death, the engine was bought by George Roose, CEO of Cedar Point Amusement Park, and was likely sent to Lakecraft Welding in Port Clinton for work. It was then sold to Tom Schlate and went to the Tobie's Mill And Mission Creek Railroad (now abandoned) in Hinckley, Minnesota, where it worked until 1991. The engine was originally built to work the Fairmore Mine of the Fairmont and Baltimore Coal and Coke Company of Adamston, West Virginia.
No. 6 was then exported to Japan in 1994 for use on the Western Village Railroad in the western-themed theme park Western Village in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. No. 6 operated on the railroad from 1994 and was used in service along with No. 4 until 2006 when the park closed for "long-term maintenance" due to financial difficulties.
When Western Village closed for "long-term maintenance" (the park never reopened), No. 6 was left in one of the sheds in the park, along with No. 4; it remained in the abandoned theme park until around 2014 when it was put up for auction on Yahoo auctions with a starting bid of JPY 2,000,000 (USD 17,856 in 2018 dollars). The locomotive is currently privately owned as of 2022; its current location is not known,
==Design==
Compared to No. 4, No. 6 sports a more simplistic design. No. 6 was originally a wood-burning locomotive; it was converted to burn oil in Japan in 1994. No. 6 sports a large diamond-shaped smokestack. The locomotive's tender holds 600 gallons of water.
==References==
Category:2-4-0 locomotives
Category:2-4-0 steam locomotives
Category:Narrow-gauge steam locomotives
Category:Steam locomotives
Category:Porter locomotives
Category:Built in 1926
Category:Four-coupled locomotives
Category:Tender locomotives
Category:Narrow-gauge locomotives
Category:3 foot gauge locomotives
Category:Locomotives
Category:American steam locomotives