This page is about Lee Tidewater Cypress Company Locomotive #2. This locomotive is not part of the Wanamaker, Kempton & Southern, but is worth a look as it is sister to WK&S #4. As near as I can tell, the two locomotives are more or less identical (except #2 is a bit smaller). LTCC #2 is located at the Collier County Museum in Naples, Florida. All the pictures on this page were taken by me in 2008 while vacationing in Naples.

The locomotive is located under a lean-to with a building on one side and landscaping on the other. The location is not at all conducive to photography.

#2 looks real nice, but it is all cosmetic. There are many sheet metal patches and thick coats of glossy black paint. Most of the appliances and fittings are gone.

A wood plank observation deck was built over the tender frame. The tank rests on the deck.

The boiler is rusted clean through above what's left of the fireman's injector.

"Built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia sometime between 1910 and 1920, Engine No. 2 spent most of its active career on logging railroads in Florida's cypress forests and woodlands. The engine is a Prairie type locomotive with a 2-6-2 wheel arrangement that was developed in 1901 to handle heavy loads in relatively flat country. It was the smallest of five, coal-burning steam locomotives once owned by the Lee Tidewater Cypress Company based in Copeland. From 1944 on, it was used as a daily labor train carrying logging crews to work in the Fakahatchee and Big Cypress Swamp. Engine No. 2 -the "Deuce"- was operated by Cecil Oglesby, Sr. until 1957 when the company closed its logging operations in Collier County.

Donated by John Thompson of Chicago and Moved to the Museum in 1988 by Mr. & Mrs. Joseph S. Sample. Restored with a grant from Merrill Lynch Realty."

"Almost half of a lumber company's labor crew was involved with operating the logging trains or laying the tracks that carried them into the heart of the cypress swamps. For over forty years, Cecil Oglesby, Sr. worked as a railroad man, following the logging camps as they cut a trail south through Florida to the virgin stands of the Big Cypress. Promoted to engineer with a salary of 63 cents an hour, Oglesby moved his family from Cross City Florida, to the Lee Tidewater camp at Copeland where, from 1949 to 1957 he steered engine No. 2 deep into the Fakahatchee Strand.

Since No. 2 - the Deuce - was the smallest of the company's steam locomotives, it usually worked as the labor train, carrying the girdlers and sawyers to logging sites in the swamp. A flagman and fireman rode with the engineer, to give directions and stoke the engine's firebox. The train left Copeland at about 5:15 every morning, Monday through Saturday, and returned the men around 5:30 in the evening. "Night hostlers" kept the equipment in running order, but engineers like Oglesby often stayed late to polish the brass bells and fittings on the aging locomotives.

Oglesby and his wife, Piccola, moved to Perry, Florida when Lee Cypress closed down its logging operations in 1957."

"Locomotive No. 2 was one of five, coal-burning steam locomotives used by the Lee Tidewater Cypress Company. The engines were retired to a rail siding in Copeland in 1957 and later sold to collectors. One was repainted and made a brief appearance in the 1958 movie, Wind Across the Everglades.

Built by the Baldwin Steam Locomotive Works in Philadelphia sometime between 1904 and 1913, engine No. 2 was a "prairie" type locomotive with a 2-6-2 wheel arrangement for running forward or in reverse. Although slow and outdated, the 50-year-old engine was well-suited to the demanding work of logging in the Big Cypress.

Locomotive No. 2 and its coal tender were returned to Collier County thirty years later in March 1987, and donated to the Museum by train collector John Thompson of Chicago, Illinois."