KENNESAW, Ga. — The Southern Museum of Civil War & Locomotive History hosted a rare Glover Machine Works locomotive for a few hours this afternoon.
Glover locomotive No. 10168, a standard gauge 2-6-0 built in 1925, was discovered in a barn in Ohio. Its new owner, Daryl Kirby of Kirby Family Farm, exhibited the locomotive at the museum in downtown Kennesaw as a stop on the journey to its permanent home in Williston, Florida.
Glover Machine Works produced more than 200 locomotives, but only a few of the manufacturer’s locomotives are still in existence. The steamer displayed on Saturday is possibly the only Glover locomotive that still operates.
Glover built the locomotive for W.J. McNeill, a logging company in Springfield, S.C., for $6,000 (paid in 12 installments of $500).
According to Dick Hillman’s “Glover Steam Locomotives: The South’s Last Steam Builder,” the locomotive later served at Six Gun Territory park in Florida. It was later on stationary display outside of a Gainesville, Florida restaurant.
A Columbus, Ohio, resident later purchased the locomotive and restored the locomotive to run on compressed air rather than steamer.
The Southern Museum displays Glover No. 7128, which was shipped to Splint Jellico Coal Co. on June 30, 1926. However, in December 1927, the locomotive was repossessed and returned to Marietta where it sat for 70 years before it was moved to the Southern Museum.
A Glover locomotive, No. 81421, a 2-6-0 built in 1916, is on display in downtown Marietta across from the historic Kennesaw House.
