LEESBURG, Fla. – The Florida Railroad Museum has acquired Cummer Lumber Co. 2-6-2 No. 104 from the city of Leesburg. The locomotive was moved last week from Herlong Park in Leesburg to the museum in Parrish after the city sold the locomotive for $20,000. The city decided to sell No. 104 after it had deteriorated while on display in the park.

The Baldwin Locomotive Works built No. 104 in 1920 for the Meredith Lumber Co. It later was sold to Foley Lumber Co. before going to Cummer Lumber Co. at Lacoochee. It was used to haul pine, cypress and other logs from Baker, Alachua and Levy counties to the company’s mill at Lacoochee.

Herlong Park was named for Albert Herlong, a former Lake County judge who went on to become a U.S. congressman. He was a railroad enthusiast and donated the locomotive and park site to the city in 1961.

The Florida Railroad Museum in Parrish includes the site of a lumber mill that operated in the area in the 1920s and 1930s, so the locomotive is an appropriate addition to its collection. The museum offers round trip tourist excursions along six miles of a former Seaboard Air Line track from Parrish north to Willow.

The museum was founded in 1981 as the Florida Gulf Coast Railroad Museum and has been operating weekend excursions out of Parrish since 1992. It is one of three Official State Railroad Museums in Florida designated by the Florida Legislature; the others are the Orange Blossom Special Railroad Museum in West Palm Beach and the Gold Coast Railroad Museum in Miami.