I know you’re just dying to hear what the latest is for the old Dogpatch theme park property in Arkansas. Well, not now.

I’ve been on a train kick lately. Always loved trains, and when I was digging into the history of Dollywood for the book, of course I had to do some tracing of the lineage for the famous steam locomotives at the park. But again, not now. At least not for the ones you’re thinking about.

Right now I’m talking about two old locomotives that stood sentry at the front entrance sign for the original park in Pigeon Forge. Rebel Railroad was the next venture for Grover Robbins, the developer who had brought Tweetsie Railroad to life in 1957. Yes, this is where Klondike Katie received her new lease on life, continuing to this day pulling long trainloads of hot, weary, excited passengers on authentic, coal-fired, cinder-filled journeys.

But back to the front entrance. If you look up old postcards from Rebel RR, you’ll see two versions of that sign, one more complete than the other. Along each side stands a vintage steam locomotive which nobody really paid much attention to over the years. One of them is still there, actually, sitting quietly off to the side at the Dollywood Parkway ticket center at the corner of Parkway and Dollywood Lane. She’s a Baldwin 2-8-0 Consolidation, built in 1887, and she used to serve on Southern Railways.

Her original companion on the left, and the point of my story, was #206, a 2-6-0 Baldwin from the old Smoky Mountain Railroad. But here’s the intrigue—most people claim this is the same locomotive that now sits on display at the Chattanooga Choo Choo complex. That engine is indeed a 2-6-0 Baldwin and is very similar, in spite of the amateurish lettering and paint job, circus balloon stack, and strange cowcatcher. She’s in pretty sorry shape, even for a static prop. I’ll have to leave it to the true steamer experts to debate the details, but I looked pretty closely and there are a few construction details that just don’t seem to mesh. Certainly modifications over time can attest for some—all?—of this, so perhaps everyone is correct.

But here’s the thing…the builder’s plate # on the Choo Choo loco doesn’t match that of the original Smoky Mtn engine. #206 was Baldwin #34964. The Choo Choo plate is #41654. Maybe the plate got switched at some point. We may never know. If it is the same one, however, it’s pretty neat to put another piece of vintage park history puzzles into place.