Cooper

Cooper is Smokey and Paul's younger brother who works with Smokey on the Knoxville & Asheville Railroad.

* **Builder**: Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA.
* **Build date**: January 1913
* **Serial Number**: 39105
* **Locomotive Class**: Southern Railway Ms class 2-8-2
* **Configuration**: 2-8-2 Mikado
* **Tractive Effort**: 53,900 lbs.
* **Arrived on the K&A**: 1949
* **Previous Owner(s) and Number(s)**: Southern Railway #4559
* **Track Gauge**: Standard, 4' 8 1/2" inches
* **Retired**: 1960, later 1962
* **Recommissioned**: 1995
* **Status**: Operational
* **Traffic**: Mixed
* **Age**: 107

## Biography

Cooper was built in 1913 for the Southern Railroad and was first stationed in Knoxville. He met his older brothers, Smokey and Paul (#4501) there and was sometimes loaned to the K&A. In 1930, he was transferred to Atlanta where he worked on freight and local passenger and mail trains, but this wouldn't last forever. *"My friends and I once had the greatest job in the world, delivering the mail on the Southern Railroad from Atlanta to Miami, that was until our jobs were given to a bunch of goshdarn crackers!.* Between 1939 and 1941, Cooper and his friends were mostly rostered onto freight work, and later on to troop trains and other important trains as World War 2 thundered on.

    Later in 1947, Cooper was transferred to Clemmens, North Carolina to work on the Winston-Salem division of the Southern and met several other engines there, including and aging old J class 2-8-0 called Norman (#542). But around this time, the Southern was beginning to retire steam power in favor for modern diesel technology.

    In April 1949, the Southern gave out the orders for Cooper to be retired from service. Norman was still kept in Spencer to act as a yard goat, however, it seemed for Cooper that he was going to be sold for scrap. But wise old Norman suggested that Cooper should run away in order to survive. Cooper took in the old engine's words and planned to run to the K&A (most notably Knoxville). On the night before the diesels would come to take him away, Cooper's crew secretly drove him out of the yard and towards the mainline. The roundhouse foreman, saw them leaving, but never said anything because he always liked Cooper and would've been sad to loose such a reliable locomotive.

    Many diesels have tried to capture him, but to no avail. Eventually, Cooper arrived in Asheville and got onto K&A metals and by Dawn, he arrived in Knoxville and hid in a warehouse. However Smokey found him and he promised to help. Even Cornelius found out and told them once he straightened everything out, he would buy Cooper. For a month, Cooper hid in the warehouse. There was even a close call, but no one found Cooper. Eventually Cornelius bought Cooper and he became an official K&A locomotive where he continued to haul freight and passengers until 1960. Cooper feared he was going to be scrapped, but Cornelius Hartford assured him he had no intentions of scrapping his steam locomotives.

    When the K&A dieselized in 1962, Cooper was sold to a private owner who brought him over to Asheville to haul excursion trains for the Southern's Steam Program. He was loaned back to the K&A in the 1970s during the Oil Crisis. When the steam program folded in 1994, Cooper's owner had him overhauled and in early 1995, he sold Cooper over to Lucas for a cheap price. Now Cooper works as hard as he did back then, hauling freight, passengers, coal, and mail.

## Trivia

* *The real #4559 was scrapped in 1949. It saw service on the Southern Railway's Asheville Division and also saw service on the Murphy Branch.*
* *Cooper once claimed he burned a pair of rubber boots in his firebox. Claimed they "Tasted like Sushi".*
* *Cooper has a fear of death.*