White Pass & Yukon No. 192

The White Pass & Yukon Railroad #192 is the one of 11 190 Class 2-8-2 Mikado's built for the White Pass and Yukon Route. She currently works at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
==History==
192 is a USATC S118 Class 2-8-2 Mikado, built in April 1943 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, PA, for the US Army. Whether intended for service there, or diverted from somewhere else is unknown, but 192 and her sisters would be shipped out to Alaska, and worked on the White Pass & Yukon Railroad, helping deliver tools and supplies to build the ALCAN military highway. The S118's were not particularly well suited to the mountainous terrain of the White Pass, due to their boilers being higher, but the White Pass was ultimately desperate for locomotives at the time.
Following the war, the engine, alongside 2 of her sisters, 190, and 196, were sold to the White Pass for regular service for $15,000, in order to compensate for White Pass engines that had been retired during the war. Engines 191, 193, and 197 would eventually be shipped back to Seattle for scrapping by 1951. 195 would end up becoming a static display in Skagway, while 198-200 were sold to the Casa Grande-Sausal Railway in Peru. At some point during the 1950's, 192 would be converted from a coal burner to an oil burner, but the exact date of the conversion is unknown. 
During the last few years of revenue service, 192 worked as a Switcher until her retirement in 1960. In 1961, The founder of Tweetsie Railroad, Grover Robbins Jr., purchased #192 and sent her to work at his 2nd Theme park, called Rebel Railroad, a Civil War themed park, which opened the same year. It was here that 192 was given the nickname Klondike Katie, evidenced by photographs from the move from Skagway to Tennessee. However, once in operation at Rebel Railroad, the name seemingly went unused, with the engine bearing the name "Rebel" on the side. In 1966, Robbins Changed the name of the Park to Goldrush Junction, and changed the theme of the park to a Wild West theme, similar to Tweetsie, during the Goldrush Junction period, the locomotive was repainted into a Tweetsie inspired paint job of green with red and gold trim, and the engine would officially bear the "Klondike Katie" name for the first time. In 1970, Art Modell, owner of the NFL football team, The Cleveland Browns, bought the park, but retained the Goldrush Junction name. At some point during the Goldrush Junction era, the engine bore the name "Big John." 
In 1976, Jack and Peter Hershend, owners of Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri, bought the park, and after operating it for a single year as simply "Goldrush", they would retheme the park as "Silver Dollar City Tennessee" the following year. 192 would be repainted black, and the locomotive would be given yet another new name, "Daddy Bryson", after an engineer on the Little River Railroad. Also in 1977, 192 would be joined by another White Pass Mikado, #70, which alongside #71, had sat in storage in Skagway for 14 years. In 1986, Herschend would make a deal with country music star Dolly Parton, on May 3, 1986, the park would officially become Dollywood. 192 would once again don the name "Klondike Katie", and has remained that way since.
==Trivia==
*No. 192 is of the exact same design as No. 190 at Tweetsie Railroad.
*No. 192 works alongside No. 70, another former White Pass & Yukon Route Mikado type, which had been built for freight trains. Oddly enough, sister No. 190 received No. 70's original tender from snowblower No. 1, but was given the tender from former Sumpter Valley Railway No. 18 when she was sold to Tweetsie.
*There is a common misconception regarding 192 and her sisters, which states that these locomotives were originally built to meter gauge and originally destined for Iran. This however, is not true. The locomotives were always destined for Alaska, and this is further disproven by the fact than Iran has no Narrow Gauge rails.
*In May 2023, No. 192's original bell was swapped out with the bell supposedly from former Southern Railway No. 107, which is a standard gauge Consolidation type and is now on outdoor static display at Dollywood's main entrance.
*In March 2024, No. 192's original Baldwin number plate was replaced with a newly-crafted number plate made by Dollywood Express employees, but it eventually got its original number plate back in July 2024.
== See also==
*Gallery
Category:2-8-2 steam locomotives
Category:2-8-2 locomotives
Category:Steam locomotives
Category:Eight-coupled locomotives
Category:Tender locomotives
Category:White Pass & Yukon locomotives
Category:Built in 1943
Category:Locomotives
Category:Baldwin locomotives
Category:American locomotives
Category:American steam locomotives
Category:United States Transportation Corps
Category:United States
Category:Amusement Park Steam Locomotives
Category:USATC S118 Class
Category:USATC
Category:Preserved locomotives
Category:Preserved steam locomotives
Category:Dollywood Locomotives