ESTILL COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — History buffs across the Commonwealth have a reason to celebrate this weekend.
People will be ready to witness the final journey of a historic locomotive this weekend.
450 tons of history will roll through Kentucky and already has drawn a crowd of onlookers.
The C and O 2716 left the Kentucky Railway Museum in Nelson County early Friday. Now, it is headed to Estill County, where it will be restored and turned into a tourist attraction.
"In order to move this locomotive, we had to do thousands and thousands of man hours to get it ready to move because it hadn't move in over 20 years. We just got done going about 45 miles an hour down the tracks where the locomotive was built 75 years ago. It's a testament to our people," said Chris Campbell, the president of the Kentucky Steam Heritage Corporation.
The train was built by the American Locomotive Company in December of 1943.
The train had carried coal between Kentucky and New York for years, until it was retired in 1957.
There will be stops made in Frankfort, Midway and Lexington, before the train arrives in Estill County on Sunday.
The arrival of the train coincides with another celebration in the county.
