Burlington Locomotive 719

The engine has worn four numbers. A railfan history of the class says the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad built it at Havelock as No. 40 in 1900, renumbered it 3687 in 1903, and made it 719 when the road was folded into the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy in 1904; the Burlington renumbered it 919 in 1951, and it went on display as 719. A sister from the same shops, B&MR No. 31 of June 1901, became CB&Q 710 and then 910 the same way and stands in Lincoln. Here 719 shares Sudman Field with Burlington Northern caboose 13701.

What the plaque says

Burlington Locomotive 719 Presented to the people of Alliance by Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company April 1962 Class K-4, 4-6-0 type Passenger Locomotive Later Stepped Back to Branch Line Freight Service Built in 1903 by C. B. & Q. R.R. Co. at Havelock Shop Length of Locomotive and Tender: 60 Ft. Weight of Locomotive and Tender: 86 Tons Starting Tractive Effort: 25,000 Pounds Burlington Locomotive 719 By the mid-1880s the Sandhills had become an important cattle-raising region. The extension of the Burlington and Missouri Railroad westward through the Sandhills in 1887-1888 made ranching more profitable by making more accessible eastern markets. By 1888 the Burlington had reached bur- geoning Alliance, planned as a railroad junction and named by B & M engineer J. N. Paul. Material for building the Belmont Tunnel (about 30 miles north- westward), supplies for the Newcastle, Wyoming, coal mines, and equipment for grading camps on the line between Alliance to Newcastle were freighted overland from Alliance while it served as the Burlington's western terminus. Locomotive Number 719, built at the Havelock, Nebraska, shops about 1903, was used for most of its half century of service on the Burlington's Alliance Division. Late in its career 719 was used on the Sterling, Colorado, to Cheyenne, Wyoming, branch line. Representative of the steam-power era of railroading, it was one of three K-4 locomotives, mainline passenger types, built at Havelock. The 86-ton engine, donated by C B & Q to the city of Alliance in 1962 and refurbished by Burlington Northern volunteers, Alliance Area Chamber of Commerce Nebraska State Historical Society

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Carhenge — 2.2 mi
  A son's memorial to his father on the family farm north of Alliance: Stonehenge copied to scale in old American cars sprayed gray, dedicated at the 1987 summer solstice.

More markers nearby

• Alliance Army Air Field — 3.1 mi
• Antioch: Potash Boom-Town — 15 mi
• Box Butte Country — 15 mi
• Hemingford — 18 mi