The new steam engine that now calls Lewes home is Pennsylvania Railroad Locomotive #60.
Its journey to the preserved piece of railroad track outside of the Lewes History Museum was several years in the making. It started one day when board member David Ludlow walked into work at Wilmington and Western Railroad just outside Wilmington. What he saw was a bit of a mess.
Ludlow said,“The locomotive was built in 1913. It weighs 88 tons, and it was dying a slow death in Wilmington, because it was just requiring way too much attention. And, there was not much potential to ever make it run again. Nobody wanted it, it got moved around from different sidings, and rusted and rusted. The rain got in it. Parts rusted to the point that they were falling off.”
And, Ludlow said that was a shame, because this locomotive is special.
“It’s called an 060 switcher- it’s got a boiler configuration that’s the last one of this wheel arrangement and that boiler configuration in the world. That’s the last one: a B6SA engine,” he said.
One of the biggest supporters of restoring the engine and bringing its south for display was former Lewes Mayor Ted Becker, who died in 2024 before the restoration became reality.
In his stead at the National Train Day unveiling was Joe Stewart, Becker’s partner and current Chair of the Greater Lewes Foundation.
“I think he probably would have been right in front of everyone, and probably urging everyone to also make more donations. This group, The Lewes Junction Railroad, are an unbelievable collection of people who have a knowledge of railroads and have raised the funds to have it rebuilt, to have it transported here. Last week, it was basically dangling from a crane, and put here. It's just a wonderful piece of history,” Stewart said.
The work of his late partner finally finished, Stewart christened the engine not with champagne, but with Lewes Brewing companies brand-new Lewes Junction Lager.
Lewes’ current mayor has also supported the engine's rescue. Amy Marasco said she and the city’s Parks and Recreation Division collaborate with Lewes Junction.
“The train is situated on the last bit of rails that are in Stango Park, which is a city park, between our community building and the public library. So, our Parks and Rec committee has been working hand in glove with this non-profit to make sure we coordinate all of those activities. And then, fundraising a lot of the city residents and others participated to help this group raise the funds to get this locomotive restored”
Marasco said people may not know the significant role the steam locomotive played in Lewes’ history. Trains exported the town’s farming products while bringing tourists in to visit, building a foundation for the tourism economy that fuels Lewes today.
Marasco was one of several to take their turn hammering a shiny spike into a railroad tie near the end of the tracks- something that has become a tradition during Lewes’ train day.
“Every year, of the four years we’ve done this celebration, we drive a golden spike into the rail to commemorate the day in 1869 that the transcontinental railroad tracks were joined from east to west in Promontory Utah," said Tatman. In response to th question about whether the spike is real gold, Tatman laughed and said, "No, we called it the golden spike to differentiate.”
That’s Lewes Junction’s chair of Outreach and Communication Cathy Tatman. She said the celebration is a big deal for the organization. it’s one of their biggest fundraising events of the year.
“Of course we want to celebrate the display itself but it didn’t happen without quite the fundraising effort, and we have to continue our fundraising effort- we’re a little bit short on what we needed to finish the engine, and we will still need to maintain the equipment. We have some more pieces of artifact type things that we would like to place trackside: the old fashioned X that said “railroad crossing”- we have one of those, but it’s going to take some money to place it here. Everything comes with a cost.”
The event is also something many train enthusiasts look forward to each year. One such train enthusiast is Stephen Franzoni, who lives in Maryland but often visits Lewes.
“We come down here a couple times a year for vacation, we love biking around here,” Franzoni said.
He’s a model train hobbyist and he said,“Yes, my club actually has two main groups: they have people who are with the Pennsylvania Railroad, and the other half is with the BNO."
And, despite not living in the area, he said the train will likely draw visitors like him to Lewes, “For my wife, it’s just another train. For me, it’s history. I mean, there’s numbers on the engine, they preserved the original color scheme on the inside of the caboose. So, it really takes you back.”
Engine #60 is only cosmetically restored, not functionally. Plans to finish its cab and other small cosmetic pieces are planned to be added over the next two weeks. After that, it will stand in one of Lewes’ most central parks as a reminder of Lewes’, and America’s, railroad reliant economy.
