Groveton Paper Company No. 7 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 0-4-0, 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 Groveton Paper Company No. 7 is a 2-4-2ST locomotive built by Vulcan Iron Works of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1911 for the Berlin Mills Company. 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.

Berlin Mills was a lumber company in New Hampshire that produced pulp, paper, lumber, and other prefabricated construction materials made of wood, such as window frames. The company had its own railroad since the 1890s for moving product from the factory to the main railroad lines. By the end of the 1920s, operations had expanded so much that more powerful locomotives were required, and many of Berlin Mill’s 2-4-2-ST Vulcans were gradually decommissioned or sold.

The Groveton Paper Company in New Hampshire had lucked out by overproducing paper products in 1939, and when America entered World War II in December 1941, it had so much paper in storage that it was one of the few companies that could meet government demands for paper. Groveton also had a railroad for its plants, and when one of its original 2-4-2STs wore out in 1944, it purchased the Berlin Mills Company No. 7. It just change the name but not the number, thus the engine became the Groveton Paper Company No. 7. The locomotive remained in use until 1956 when it was replaced with a diesel-electric engine built by General Electric.

In 1961, a group of businessmen from New Hampshire founded the Woodsville, Blackmount, and Haverhill Steam Railroad, a tourist-based excursion railroad, and in 1962 they leased the No. 7 locomotive from the Groveton Paper Company, which had kept it for historical purposes. The venture lasted only two years, though the locomotive was not returned to Groveton. No. 7 was eventually donated in 1969 to the Steamtown Foundation, the non-profit organization that ran Steamtown USA. By that time founder Nelson Blount was deceased, having been killed in a plane crash in 1967.

The Groveton Paper Company No. 7 locomotive is one of only four standard gauge 2-4-2ST locomotives in the United States. It sits prominently at Steamtown National Historic Site on the roundhouse plaza.