By Railfan & Railroad Staff

CLEWISTON, Fla. — U.S. Sugar kicked off its 90th harvest season this week with a steam-powered freight. On Thursday, recently restored 4-6-2 148 was fired up to haul the first sugarcane train of the season on the company’s South Central Florida Express railroad. The company also held a brief dedication for the locomotive before putting it on display for the afternoon. 

Locomotive 148 was restored to service earlier this year and U.S. Sugar expects to use it for public events and excursions in the future under the banner “Sugar Express.”

The restoration at U.S. Sugar is a homecoming of sorts for the classy looking Pacific. The oil-fired locomotive was built at Alco’s Richmond Works in April 1920 and worked in passenger service for Florida East Coast before being sold to U.S. Sugar in 1952. At U.S. Sugar, the locomotive moved sugar cane from the fields to a mill at Clewiston, Fla. After it was retired by US Sugar, 148 briefly returned to passenger service in the 1970s at New Jersey’s Black River & Western and Morristown & Erie. The locomotive saw a number of owners after that and spent time in Colorado, Michigan and Connecticut. In each instance, hopes to restore the locomotive to operation always faltered. In late 2016, U.S. Sugar repurchased the locomotive and brought it back to Clewiston for restoration. The restoration was completed in partnership with FMW Solutions, LLC. 

U.S. Sugar’s South Central Florida Express operates on more than 200 miles of track in central Florida, much it still used to haul cut sugar cane from field to factory, the last such operation in the country.