E. J. Lavino & Company No. 3 locomotive on display at Steamtown National Historic Site

See the Train Collection web page for more locomotives at Steamtown National Historic Site.

Note: Numbers used in this article, such as 0-6-0, are known as Whyte Notation. This is a system to classify steam locomotives that was created by Frederick Whyte in 1900. These numbers describe the arrangements of wheels. Most locomotives only have three numbers, with the first being the number of non-powered wheels used to support the front of the engine, the second being the number of powered wheels, and the third being the number of non-powered rear wheels. For locomotives with four or more numbers in their Whyte Notation, the first and last numbers are always the front and rear non-powered wheels, while all others are groups of powered wheels.

The E. J. Lavino & Company No. 3 is a 0-6-0ST locomotive built by the American Locomotive Company in 1927 for the Poland Spring Company, the originator of the brand of spring water that is still sold today. However, there is no record that the engine was ever used by, or even delivered to, Poland Spring. If it was delivered, then it most likely was used to run loads of bottled water from the bottling plant at the spring to a loading facility on the main railroad.

There is also no concrete record as to when the locomotive was purchased by E. J. Lavino & Company for use in its ferro-manganese blast furnace in Sheridan, Pennsylvania. It could have been acquired as early as 1927, but the first mention of it in existing company records is in 1949. The locomotive was eventually purchased in 1966 by Steamtown USA founder Nelson Blount.

Note: The ST in the Whyte Notation indicates a saddle tank locomotive. Instead of carting its water and fuel (coal) in a separate tender car, tank engines had water tanks and coal bins built onto the locomotive itself. A saddle tank locomotive has a water tank that sits on top of the boiler like a saddle. Coal is stored at the rear of the cab in a bin called a bunker. Tank engines were typically small and used around the railyard or on short trips since they did not carry enough water and fuel to travel long distances. Without a tender, they were easier to operate in smaller spaces.